


Last Chances

by AgentExile



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (sort of), Angst and Fluff and Smut, Background JaeTen, Enemies to Lovers, Falling In Love, Hybrids, M/M, platonic johnyong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2020-07-27 15:03:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentExile/pseuds/AgentExile
Summary: Taeyong has everything he’s ever wanted; everything that any kitty hybrid could ever want.But he wants more.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone <3 I know that this is an unexpected one from me, but this fic has been in my drafts for a very long time now. I originally wrote it for Enrara 2019 (prompt 25) but could not meet the deadline; however I saw that it was okay to post after so here it is. This fic saved me when I was in my worst ever writer’s block – I wrote the first 10k words in one day. And it means a lot to me so… hearts. <3

Taeyong knew Johnny so well that he could recognise the weight of his footsteps out in the corridor, so he had already skipped into the hallway by the time the keycode beeped six times, once for each number, and then a seventh to indicate that the lock had opened. He beamed a dazzling smile as Johnny slipped through the door. This was always Taeyong’s favourite part of the day, when Johnny _finally _made it home from work.

‘I made tangsuyuk!’ he announced without hesitation.

Johnny looked up with a small smile as he kicked off his shoes. ‘Hello to you too, Tyongie.’ He sounded a little too wearied for Taeyong’s liking. The evenings seemed to shift later and later these days.

‘How was work?’ Taeyong asked as he crossed over to him and helped him out of his jacket. His eyes were drawn to the white bag in his right hand, printed with the name of a luxury brand in a sharp black font. He wanted to grab at it with _gimme gimme _hands but he held back because he knew that would probably be rude.

Johnny shrugged. ‘Not bad. I spent half the day across town on site. Because I was near the shopping district, I _may _have dropped in on a couple of places during my lunch break.’

‘Did you buy anything for me?’ Taeyong said innocently.

‘You don’t have sauce or anything on your hands, do you?’

Taeyong giggled and shook his head, ‘dinner’s already on the table. I cleared up.’

‘Alright, open it quickly then, we don’t want dinner to go cold,’ laughed Johnny. He handed him the bag and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to give him a gentle squeeze.

Taeyong stuck his hand immediately into the bag and pulled out the parcel in pretty pink paper, the sort that they used to protect nice things from expensive stores. He walked as he unwrapped, back towards the strong smell of cooking from the kitchen-diner, and allowed the soft material to unravel over his hands.

‘Ooh cute!’ he gasped. It was a fluffy white sweater with sequinned cat ears stitched on the front.

‘To match the real ones,’ said Johnny fondly. He lifted his hand to scratch behind the soft silvery-white ears nestled amongst Taeyong’s dark hair.

‘Thank you, Johnny.’

‘It’s nothing. Oh _God _your tangsuyuk,’ he groaned as if in _bliss _when he looked down at the plates Taeyong had prepared.

Cooking was the one domain in the household that was primarily Taeyong’s. The only meal that Johnny cooked each day was breakfast, for the two of them. Taeyong made himself lunch while Johnny was at work, and then more often than not he tried to have a nice dinner ready for him when he got home because it was the least he could do to repay everything that Johnny gave him.

Spoiled. Taeyong was spoiled.

His best friend Ten always teased him about it. Ten lived down the hall with Jaehyun, one of _Johnny’s _friends, and he was the only hybrid friend that Taeyong had. Ten wasn’t _so_ spoiled; Jaehyun didn’t buy him clothes every day or take him to have his tail and ears groomed at the _fancy _place or lavish him with expensive gifts.

But he did spoil him a bit. Taeyong never retorted that, but he thought it. Ten was spoiled with other stuff. Ten was spoiled with kisses and love and _not _the kind of love that Taeyong had with Johnny.

Johnny, for all his spoiling of Taeyong and for all their cuddles, was, at the end of the day, Taeyong’s owner. And he was Taeyong’s friend. His oldest friend. He cared for him dearly and made sure that he never wanted for _anything_. Johnny loved Taeyong. Taeyong loved Johnny.

But they weren’t _in_ love.

Ten didn’t understand it, but then how could he? He’d met Jaehyun as an adult, skipped every other stage of interpersonal relationships and gone straight to being his partner, whereas Taeyong had grown up with Johnny. Johnny was _family_. They didn’t look at each other like _that_.

More and more, these days, no matter how hard Taeyong tried to push the thought to the back of his mind, he found himself lying awake at night wondering one thing:

Was he ever going to get to fall in love?

He didn’t go out much, unless it was with Johnny, and his only other real friend was Ten, who was _obviously _taken.

Taeyong had a lot of love to give. He was a _bundle _of love. But if he spent his life between these walls it was starting to become clear that he might never get to share it all. Not ever.

Those thoughts crept in when he was alone, or when he was sad. Sometimes he got so anxious about what his future would look like if something happened to _Johnny _that he had to walk to Johnny’s room and sleep on the other side of his bed just to remind himself that his owner wasn’t going anywhere. He never wanted to be alone. He knew that if needs be Jaehyun and Ten would take him in in a second, but thoughts lingered in his mind that there was more than one way to be lonely. He wanted to love someone. He needed to love someone.

‘Tyongie this is amazing,’ said Johnny, as he tucked into the dinner he’d made. ‘I swear the way you cook… no one else in the world can do it like you.’

Taeyong smiled and nodded, dragging himself back out of those thoughts. ‘You know how much I love it. It’s easy to do what you love.’

‘What did you do today? Tell me everything.’

Just like every other evening, Taeyong opened his mouth and started to tell Johnny all about his day, even though it was always the same story.

*

Taeyong had a routine.

A very strict routine.

It had taken many years to _perfect_ this routine.

The day started when Johnny woke up, usually at 6:30am unless it was the weekend, and Taeyong would stay in bed while he listened to him potter around the apartment. Taeyong’s bedroom shared a wall with the kitchen, so he could always hear Johnny in the mornings, but he didn’t get out of bed; he preferred to listen, and try to guess from the sound of the pans what Johnny might be cooking.

Just before he went to work each day, Johnny would drop in and give him the breakfast that he’d made. He would press a kiss to Taeyong’s forehead, ruffle his hair and scratch behind his ears, and then tell him to have a fun day.

From then, until midday, Taeyong enjoyed what he called _lazing hours_. During that time, he did nothing but mooch around the apartment, sometimes putting the TV on and watching some of the morning shows, or sometimes playing a video game, or sometimes curling up in Johnny’s favourite armchair to read a book. When his tummy reminded him to, he would get up to make some lunch.

Then, in the early afternoon, he napped. Usually for around two hours. He liked to sleep, and it wasn’t uncommon for cat hybrids to take a break during the day.

The afternoon from that point on was really just a wait for Johnny to get home. On Tuesdays and Fridays he was allowed to go round to Jaehyun and Ten’s apartment. Those days were Taeyong’s favourites. On the days when he couldn’t go around to theirs, he didn’t enjoy the afternoons much.

He would tidy up a bit, but there was never much to do. Johnny took charge of the cleaning, even though that was the sort of thing that Taeyong could be doing. He insisted that Taeyong not do _work_, that he didn’t live there to look after that kind of thing. To fill the time, Taeyong would sometimes work on a project, like an art project, for Johnny or for Ten. If there was nothing to do, he just slept again until it was time to make dinner.

At last, Johnny returned home each evening. Then there was the catch-up from the day over dinner when Taeyong would recite this routine, and then they would sit on the couch together, Johnny with his arm around him, to watch a movie until it was time to go to bed.

Johnny would say goodnight to Taeyong. Taeyong would say goodnight to Johnny.

And then they slept.

That was… it, he supposed.

That was the routine.

It was perfect, a result of many years of work and adjustment.

And it was also… not perfect.

He tapped his fingers on the kitchen counter, the morning after tangsuyuk, his gaze fixed out the window. Johnny’s apartment was on the fourth floor, so it was a fair way down to the ground, but Taeyong could still see quite clearly the people who passed on the road outside. There was a mother, pushing a pram, but her attention seemed to be diverted by the phone-call she was taking. There were three school children, who had likely just been let out of class, one of whom had just been pushed over by his friend. A little way up the street, there was a harried looking man walking at triple speed, with his owl hybrid hopping to keep up. The hybrid was taking notes on a notepad as they walked. A small smile crept onto Taeyong’s face – he knew the two of them, they lived in his building.

Hybrids were not permitted to undertake paid work, but they were allowed to volunteer with the consent of their owners, and many people brought their hybrids under their own employment. This was one such case. The man ahead was a lawyer, Taeyong knew, and a very busy one at that. His hybrid acted as his assistant.

For a moment, Taeyong wondered what it would be like if _he _could work with Johnny.

But Johnny didn’t even really like him working around the apartment, let alone working a _job_.

Taeyong looked down. He liked to look out the window, but he couldn’t help the creeping sensation in his stomach whenever he stared for too long.

The people out there had _lives_, lives in abundance.

The mother would raise her baby and hopefully resolve whatever problem the phone was telling her about, and then she’d watch her baby grow into an adult she could be proud of. The kids would get grades at school and go on to different colleges and then different jobs, endless prospects. The lawyer would go to the courtrooms, and the lucky owl hybrid would get to go with him and learn more about the legal system and _world_.

Taeyong picked absentmindedly at a dent in the countertop.

He hadn’t gone to school. He’d been taught simple skills, in the group home that he was raised in, but only enough to make him sufficiently desirous to be adopted. He could read and write, but not fantastically. He could do mathematics to a level that he could manage the shopping and deal with cash if he needed to, but he never really went to the shops without Johnny anyway. And there were things, too, that Johnny had taught him. Lots about books and history and science, but more about buildings, because Johnny enjoyed buildings.

He was an architect.

But there was nothing that Taeyong could look to as a _direction _in his life; nothing he was brilliant at; and nothing that a cat hybrid would be allowed to do even if he _were _brilliant at it.

Stuck.

Taeyong was stuck.

It had taken a long time for him to admit it, but recently the thoughts had become too prominent to push away anymore.

He was stuck in his routine, and he’d probably be stuck there forever.

He reached up and turned the kitchen shutters slightly, so that he wasn’t tempted to look outside again.

Under the counter, there was a large folder and a book, in which Taeyong stored all his handwritten recipes, so he pulled those out to give himself something to do. It was too early, really, to be starting dinner, but there was nothing else to occupy his time. He slipped out a recipe for dakdoritang and looked over that, nodding to himself. He could make that stew in the slow cooker and Johnny really liked it.

He took down potatoes and onions and carrots and ginger to work on those first. Preparing vegetables was something that he found quite therapeutic. Sometimes, he prepared far more than were necessary for the recipe just because he got caught up in the cycle of washing and peeling and slicing. Then, he pulled out his tray of sauces and wines and started to pick through those too, the gentle clink of the bottles ringing around the empty apartment.

He hummed to himself to fill the quiet, a love song that he’d learned off the radio. In the past, he’d thought about asking Johnny if they could go to a concert, but he knew that he’d probably get nervous with too many loud noises so he didn’t bother. 

The day didn’t drag by so slowly once he was cooking. When everything was in the slow cooker, he decided to make a dessert too, just to pass the time. Then, when he was _completely _done, he flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV and took his tail into his hands to play with absentmindedly while he watched whatever was on the first channel.

He liked to hold his tail, like a sort of plushie that went with him wherever he went, because the feeling of stroking it was both relaxing and comforting. He knew that it secretly drove Johnny crazy because Taeyong had a tendency to shed. Everywhere. He wasn’t 100% sure of his genetic make-up because hybrids were complex, very complex in scientific ways that he didn’t entirely understand, but Johnny thought that the kitty side of him was probably most closely related to a ragamuffin. That would explain the long, plush hair. And the fact that he lived for cuddles.

He smoothed out the fur, a blend of white with little silvery sections, and picked away at a small knot that would have to be groomed out. He frowned. He didn’t usually miss that kind of thing, but he’d been feeling so out of sorts over the last few days.

For the first time, maybe the first time _ever_, he didn’t notice the sound of the door opening.

‘Taeyong?’

He sat up, glancing over his shoulder in surprise. ‘Johnny,’ he smiled, ‘you’re home early!’

Johnny raised his eyebrows. ‘No I’m not,’ he said gently, ‘same time as always. Have you been daydreaming?’

Taeyong climbed off the couch. ‘Sorry, I must have been. I – dinner is in the slow-cooker. Damn. I didn’t realise it was so late.’

He presented himself for a hug or a kiss on the cheek but Johnny instead pressed his palm to his forehead with a frown. ‘Is your heat due?’

‘No,’ he pouted, ‘why?’

‘You just seem… y’know. I hope you’re not getting sick or something.’

Taeyong shook his head. ‘I’ve just been having one of those funny days. I’m okay.’

‘Alright, well you let me know if you start getting feverish or anything, okay?’ Johnny hummed. ‘I bought you a book in town.’ He took the book from his work bag and held it out. It was a recipe book.

‘Thank you,’ he said softly, ‘thank you so much.’

Another one to add to the collection.

Once Taeyong had managed to unload everything to the table and introduce his dinner a little late, he found himself picking at his food. His appetite felt… off. With a deep breath, worry in his stomach, he finally found voice to the words that had been playing on his mind. ‘Um… Johnny?’

‘Mmhm?’ Johnny was mid-mouthful.

‘Can I go to the market?’

Johnny swallowed and then nodded. ‘Sure. I’ll take you at the weekend.’

Taeyong took another breath, waiting as he watched him eat again. ‘Um… I was thinking… could I go… like by myself?’

At that, Johnny looked up in surprise. ‘By yourself?’

Taeyong gulped. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Johnny’s feelings, but the words just tumbled out. ‘It’s just… you know I’ve been thinking about – about maybe trying to be a bit more… a bit more independent.’

‘Oh,’ Johnny looked genuinely taken aback. ‘Okay… what’s brought this on?’

Taeyong turned his gaze down to his dinner, embarrassed. ‘I’ve just been feeling a bit… a bit lonely, during the week. When you’re not here. And I thought I could try getting out more and maybe I could meet some new friends or something.’

To his relief, Johnny didn’t look offended. He just looked surprised. ‘Well… yeah, yeah. I don’t see why not. Do you know the way?’

‘Johnny, we go to the market every week. It’s two streets away.’

‘Oh – oh yeah,’ he laughed. ‘I guess I’m just not used to thinking about you going out alone. Maybe you could take Ten with you?’

‘I really wanna try it by myself,’ he whispered. ‘I wanna prove to myself that I can do… something by myself.’

‘I didn’t realise this had been on your mind,’ said Johnny, concern in his eyes.

‘It hasn’t. Only like recently. This week.’ That was a lie, but only a slight one.

‘Okay sure. Would you – would you text me when you go and when you get home? So I know you’re safe?’

‘Of course,’ Taeyong nodded rapidly.

‘And you have to wear your collar. Otherwise someone might pick you up thinking you’re a stray.’

‘Yep yep yep,’ he nodded again. He always wore a collar outside anyway, in case he and Johnny got separated. He didn’t like wearing one around the apartment, unlike Ten who displayed his smugly all the time, because he found them itchy around his neck. But he would never go out without one.

Johnny looked at him with warm, soft eyes. He always looked at Taeyong like that. ‘It’s weird thinking about you going out in the world by yourself. Be careful, won’t you?’

‘I will, I promise.’

*

The next day, Taeyong got dressed and ready only this time he wore his outdoor clothes. He put on the sweater that Johnny had bought him, with the cat ears, and a pair of nice jeans. He spent _ages _preening his own ears and his tail because in public he was representing Johnny as well as himself and he wanted everyone to know that Johnny had the _best,_ most confidently independent, the _smartest_ hybrid around.

And then he gulped.

He’d never been out and about alone.

He knew the city well because he’d been all sorts of places with Johnny, and sometimes if Johnny was very busy, Jaehyun and Ten would take him somewhere instead.

Before he left, he checked everything a thousand times. He checked that the stove was switched off, and that he had the door code written down on a piece of paper because he didn’t usually pay much attention to it. Then, filled with nerves but aware that he had to do it now or he wouldn’t do it at all, he slipped out of the front door.

When it closed behind him with a click, he suddenly felt exposed.

He pulled out his phone, a brand new model that Johnny had bought him, with shaky fingers, and sent a text to let him know that he’d left. As he lowered it, though, he felt a wave of something else.

Was it excitement?

He was going out by himself.

_By himself_.

He could go anywhere. Do anything. Be anyone.

Or he could just go to the market and buy some gochujang.

Yes, that was what he was going to do.

Out on the street, he found himself more skittish than ever. He felt nervous, constantly checking around that no one was staring at him, as though he was about to be caught and told off for going outside. That was ridiculous. There was no rule against hybrids being out by themselves. On the contrary, it wasn’t uncommon to see hybrids around doing the shopping or running errands for their owners.

But still.

He walked the short journey to the market at double speed. Being out on the street without Johnny was _weird_.

What if there were kidnappers?

Did kidnappers kidnap grown-ups?

What about hybrids? Cat hybrids?

_Kitnappers_.

He sped up until he was almost running, and only half-relaxed when he reached the large, indoor market. This place, he knew very well. Most of the staff would recognise him from shopping with Johnny. People always seemed to find it difficult to forget Taeyong, though he wasn’t quite sure why.

Inside, with the familiar hustle and bustle, he felt more settled. He often wandered off in the store while Johnny shopped for boring stuff so this didn’t feel so different to usual.

The store at this time was filled mainly with moms, but there were a few hybrids too. Shopping was a popular responsibility for hybrids, something that even the most discriminatory of humans _trusted_ them with. Almost all of them were around Taeyong’s age.

Taeyong had been living with Johnny since he was little more than a kitten. He’d never had another owner, unless counting the shared home he’d been raised in. He’d begun his life with Johnny in the house that _Johnny_ had grown up in, when he was gifted to him by his parents. Hybrids had been all the rage, then. Christmas wasn’t Christmas for the rich and extravagant without a hybrid as a present; a _hybrid _was apparently _far_ more interesting than a puppy.

Only most of the idiots didn’t read the manual. They had no idea the challenges, the costs, the base necessities to take care of another person. Hybrids, for all the humans’ postulation, should never have been kept as _pets. _But they didn’t care. They were cute and novelty, and a hybrid could be a companion for life, a friend. That, Taeyong knew, was why Johnny’s parents had bought him. They’d moved to Korea midway through Johnny’s time at high school, and Johnny hadn’t really _had _friends in Seoul yet. So they’d bought him one: one that would be loyal, loving, and always there.

Taeyong was grateful for them. They were rich and kind and they had at least some understanding of how to take care of him. He’d known from the start that he wouldn’t be back in a shelter home by next Christmas, which was more than could be said for most hybrids in his position.

Like many hybrids, Taeyong had been adopted out to them on the verge of becoming a teenager, still _technically_ a kitten but without the demands of what was essentially another young child.

He had been at the tail-end of that passage of popularity, though. Since then, the trend had died out a little, once everyone had realised how difficult hybrids were to take care of.

Therefore, most hybrids around town these days were either from Taeyong’s generation, or older. The others, he supposed, must be in shelters somewhere; until draconian laws were changed, they would be unable to take care of themselves.

He watched a couple of cat hybrids over by the grocery section. They were talking together, both wearing matching collars of dark purple, and they were smiling. They looked nice. Maybe a bit older than Taeyong.

Could he approach them?

He wanted to make friends.

But he had no idea _how_.

He certainly wouldn’t go approaching a human out of nowhere because in his experience a lot of them turned up their noses at him. They had a tendency, when he and Johnny spoke to any of them, to talk only to Johnny. Like Taeyong wasn’t even there. Even if they were talking _about _Taeyong they didn’t spare him a glance. _‘Pretty hybrid you have_,’ was far more common than ‘_pretty hybrid you are._’

But hybrids… other cats… maybe they wouldn’t mind him saying hello.

He paused, suspended in thought for a second, and then scurried off to a different aisle instead.

Too scared.

Suddenly he wished that he _had _brought Ten with him. Ten was much more sociable than him and more independent, he went out all the time by himself, and probably better at this kind of thing.

As he walked around the shop, though, he found a smile creeping onto his face. He might not be making friends but he was outside, all by himself. He was doing something he’d never done before, something the scared him a little but excited him more. For the first time, he didn’t need Johnny’s supervision.

_Oohhh_.

Without Johnny around, he could buy him a present as a surprise!

He raced around after that thought came to him, darting his way to the cash registers in the grocery department to buy his ingredients and then hurrying off towards a smaller pop-up store that sold stationery and books and nice notepads and things like that.

Just outside he turned a corner, so caught up in his excitement that he didn’t think to slow down, and he skipped headlong into some sort of pillar. Well, it felt like a pillar given how immoveable it was, but given the _huff _of breath that was knocked out of it, Taeyong figured that it had to be alive.

Taeyong himself was knocked back so drastically that he actually fell, but he managed to stumble to safety before hitting the deck. ‘Sorry!’ he gasped, even though he was the one who had almost hurt himself.

The other man, and Taeyong could see now that it was man, did not apologise. In fact, he was cursing, because he seemed to have dropped his shopping.

‘Sorry sorry sorry,’ Taeyong repeated. He reached out to pick up some of the fallen goods. They were all basic groceries, though not from the fancy mart that Taeyong had shopped at, but rather a cheaper one that he recognised the name of.

‘It’s fine.’ The voice was sharp.

‘Here!’ Taeyong righted himself and held out a handful of rescued fruits with a radiant smile. ‘Sorry!’

Their eyes met for a second, and Taeyong’s widened a little in surprise.

The stranger was a hybrid.

There was nothing obvious to say so, but it was obvious to Taeyong. A human wouldn’t even notice, but to a fellow hybrid there were just… signs. He couldn’t even put his finger on them.

He was wearing a beanie, pulled down low, probably pressing his ears flat to his head, and there was no sign of a tail, but the shape of his nose and something about the way his gaze flickered around nervously made Taeyong think –

Bunny.

‘You’re a hybrid!’ he beamed.

‘What? No. No I’m not.’ The stranger looked over his shoulder nervously, then snatched the last of the food from Taeyong’s hands.

‘I’m Tae-’ he started, but the stranger had already pushed past him, knocking into his side. ‘Ow!’

No apology.

Taeyong wanted to snap after him that there was no need to be so rude but the hybrid was already jogging away at pace. He looked down, and saw a lone packet of ramen left on the floor.

He picked it up. No matter how rude someone was, he couldn’t _not help_. ‘Hey! Hey! You dropped your ramen!’ he called after him, and he decided to begin a chase. He was very swift on his feet, buoyed by cheer, and he managed to catch up with him easily. ‘Here! Sir! You dropped your ramen!’

‘Right. Thanks,’ he said irritably.

‘I’m Taeyong!’ Taeyong said quickly before he had time to run away again.

‘Good for you.’ Then, he set off again.

This time, Taeyong didn’t follow.

He knew where he wasn’t wanted.

He reassembled his smile and walked back to the store to buy Johnny’s present, but he was stopped halfway again, this time by a burly security guard in a white shirt who purposely pulled in front of him. ‘You see a guy in a beanie?’ he demanded, without any other introduction. A second security man caught up with him a moment later.

‘Oh, sure,’ Taeyong nodded, but then he paused.

He was thinking about the rude stranger.

He was a hybrid, alright.

But he hadn’t been wearing a collar.

He changed his mind. ‘I mean no. Maybe. I - I don’t know. I don’t think so.’

The man looked to his colleague with the air of someone suffering. His mate just shrugged. ‘Try getting a straight answer out of one of their kind. Waste of time.’

Taeyong looked at them blankly.

‘Don’t bother,’ the other muttered, and then they both pushed past him, returning to their search for the beanie-bunny.

Taeyong bit his lip, wondering whether he should have told them the truth. But he knew that hybrids could get into a lot of trouble if they were walking around without a collar on; strays weren’t supposed to be out on the streets. Johnny would probably tell him off if he found out that he’d lied, but Taeyong knew from Ten what halfway shelters were like and he wasn’t… well he wasn’t going to send someone there.

*

‘Taeyongie this is _amazing_,’ said Johnny as he turned the journal over in his hands that Taeyong had bought for him. ‘Thank you.’

Taeyong looked down at his dinner shyly. ‘That’s okay.’

Johnny took his hand on the table and gave it a light squeeze. ‘How was it? Being out by yourself?’

‘I was kind of scared at first. I kept thinking someone was going to tell me off. But once I got used to it, it was okay.’

‘I was so worried about you,’ Johnny exhaled. ‘My kitty out all by himself. Did you make any new friends?’

‘Not yet,’ Taeyong said with a small laugh. ‘Some people stared at me. I think they were wondering where you were.’

‘Let’s go out together this weekend. There’s an amazing new restaurant that I got us a reservation for that overlooks the whole city.’

Taeyong nodded happily. Going out by himself had been something he’d been stewing on for ages, something he’d got excited about and anxious about, but right now all he could think about was going back out with Johnny again. With Johnny, he didn’t have to worry about strange things like hybrids without collars.

With Johnny, at the very least, he always felt safe.


	2. Chapter 2

Doyoung had a routine.

Well, sort of.

His routine had been formulated over the last three years, the years in which he’d uprooted his life every few months and needed some sort of stability to rely on in his mind. Hence, the routine.

Each day began late in the morning, because the warehouse in which he was currently living was entirely boarded up without a single window to betray any daylight. So everyone slept late.

_Everyone _meant himself and the three hybrids that he shared the space with: Yukhei, Jungwoo, and Kun. Yukhei and Jungwoo had fled their home after their owner had been disgusted to find out that they were together and threatened to sell one of them. Kun, who had met them out on the street in another city, was a little older and a little wiser and was probably the reason they hadn’t been caught yet.

Doyoung had joined all three of them when he’d escaped the last-chance shelter they’d put him in after he’d broken out of the one _before _that. It had come with a warning that if he tried to escape this one, he’d be looking at arrest. But Doyoung wasn’t going to spend his life in a shitty state-run home stuck between four walls. No way. So he’d gone.

He’d caught a train to Seoul, and it was there that he met Kun and Yukhei and Jungwoo on the outskirts of the city, who, after a vote, had taken him in. They called this warehouse home, now, though they’d moved twice even just since he’d been with them. It was long abandoned, but quite liveable. There was no heating, and no water, but they made do. There were ways to keep warm and places to find water. What mattered was that they had shelter, and shelter far away from the prying eyes of humans.

So the morning started late, each day.

Doyoung normally left first, although sometimes it was Kun. Nine times out of ten, though, it was Doyoung. He liked the three of them, and at a stretch, he’d call them his friends, but he wasn’t inclined to spending all day stuck inside with them. They were people pushed together by circumstance, and while he’d help them out if it came to it, he didn’t enjoy the thought of waiting every day like a sitting target in an old warehouse.

Even if it was riskier to spend his days outside, he would choose that every time. There was a reason he’d fled the shelters in the first place. He didn’t like to feel trapped.

For the first part of the day, he’d go looking for something to eat. That part was for himself – he was usually able to swipe something nice from a street-food stall or, on occasions when he was feeling especially rebellious, from someone’s hand. Later, he would find food for the others, too. Doyoung was the best at stealing. Kun took charge of the shared budget from the meagre amounts of money they amassed together, but Doyoung could sneak his way into anywhere and emerge with a bag or more for dinner.

For the rest of the day, he tended to wander.

Sometimes, he would jump the barriers at the subway station and just ride around all day for something to do.

Sometimes, he’d walk along the river.

Sometimes he would just move through town, aimlessly, _searching _for an aim.

In the evening, he went home, or as much home as a warehouse could be. Kun was the cook amongst them, and could make anything with a portable grill and a small fire. Yukhei was the self-appointed protector of the gang, and kept watch over the warehouse, and, by his own declaration, Jungwoo. Jungwoo took care of everything else, from keeping the warehouse hit for habitation, to loosening the stitches on Doyoung’s hat so that his ears could be accommodated.

Between the four of them, they did okay.

They survived.

And they didn’t get caught. 

In the evenings that stretched into nights, Doyoung fought to _learn_.

He wanted to know everything. Before, he hadn’t known how to read at all, but Jungwoo had been teaching him. He wanted to get good at it, good enough to start reading law books and writing letters. He regularly interrogated Kun, who had once lived with a local council member, and therefore knew at least a little bit about _stuff_.

Learning. He was always learning.

Then, it got late, and they slept.

That was the routine.

He was halfway through it on the day that fate decided to play a new, particularly frustrating trick on him.

Seoul was cold and wet and everything else that the beginning of the year brought with it. Doyoung had bundled himself up in layers; such an amount of clothing might have been a hindrance for other people, but for him it was a good thing – he could better conceal his hybrid features. He had decided to take a trip into the city, and had settled himself on a bench with his workbook.

He was copying out street names. That was how Jungwoo had told him he could get better at his writing.

He looked up at one of the large, company buildings on the opposite side of the street, and narrowed his eyes. His mouth formed the name of the company, shaping the words slowly, and then he looked down at his paper. Jungwoo had written him a key of all of the sounds and symbols that had once been so inscrutable to him, and that was always his first point of reference.

His barrier was crossing the stage at which he still had to work through every single sound just to spell something out. He wanted to be able to read without a second thought, just _understand_ what he saw. Every time that he felt like giving up though, he remembered how far he had come already.

He looked back up again to sound out the name but he was quickly distracted.

‘Oh _shit_,’ he said aloud.

On the opposite side of the street, two men were leaning against a wall, talking animatedly.

One was unfamiliar. He was tall, well-dressed, expensive clothes. Actually, he was exactly the sort of guy that Doyoung didn’t like upon immediate appraisal: human, wealthy, and a little too slick for his liking. It wasn’t a good combination.

That wasn’t what disturbed him, though.

The second _was _familiar, and that was far more unsettling.

Outside of Kun, Jungwoo, and Yukhei, Doyoung did not get to know people. The population of the city was sufficient that he was unlikely ever to run into the same person twice. And yet, there he was, only a few days after Doyoung had first crashed into his presence. Or vice versa.

It was the boy from the market.

_Boy_, he rolled his eyes. _Man. Cat._

He always tried to appreciate the hybrid side first. He didn’t think of hybrids as _part-humans_ or any of that other bile. No. Every hybrid ought to be respected _as_ a hybrid - in Doyoung’s opinion the very best thing to be.

_Taeyong_.

The cat was around Doyoung’s age, and clearly well looked after. He had dark hair, mostly black, but with two little white ears nestled in amongst it. Just like his owner – and Doyoung didn’t need to look twice to know that he was his _owner_ – he was well-dressed. He wasn’t wearing a suit like the human was, but he looked very luxuriantly put-together in sleek black jeans and a loose, silky-looking shirt embroidered with flowers.

The human was holding an umbrella over the two of them, but mainly his cat.

_His_.

The word alone made Doyoung’s stomach turn.

The very thought of belonging to someone was repulsive to him.

He looked down, heart pounding. His first thought was to get the fuck out of there.

Something kept him rooted to his seat, though. Why should he have to leave? He had just as much entitlement to be here as they did.

He glanced up one more time, and then cursed internally, because the cat had looked over.

Their eyes met. Doyoung fought the urge to look down, his obstinance battling with a fight or flight instinct that he had refined from a deeply chequered past, and in his experience, flight was often the only way out of a situation. But he held his gaze, tilting his chin up.

The stranger-not-quite-stranger looked away first.

_Hah_.

He went back to his notebook, a small smile creeping onto his face.

He only looked up again, curiosity getting the better of him, after a moment. And his heart leapt to his mouth because both human and hybrid where only a couple of metres away. They’d crossed the road, and they were headed – fuck – they were headed right to him.

As soon as he stood up, he shoved his book into his bag. His hands actually shook with haste, and he found that the corner of the book got caught on the strap of his bag. He cursed aloud. There was no stubbornness anymore, just horrible, creeping anxiety. The last thing he wanted was –

‘Excuse me?’

_Oh shit, oh shit_. ‘What?’ he snapped. His eyes glared with all the fury of a man both angry and threatened.

The human – the _fucking _human – looked at him in surprise. His arm was around his hybrid, all sort of… possessive looking. He was a lot taller than the cat. Then, though, he smiled. ‘I’m Johnny Seo,’ he said with a voice that reeked of faux politeness. ‘Taeyongie said that you two met at the store.’

Taeyongie? _Ugh_. He scowled at the cat, like he was the one who should have known that Doyoung would absolutely not want to be identified. ‘We – yeah I mean we saw each other. But I need to - ’ He made to leave.

‘Tyongie really wanted to meet some friends,’ said the man, voice gentle. Doyoung hated that. He didn’t like being spoken to like a baby just because he was a hybrid. Not that this guy knew he was a hybrid – Doyoung knew how to conceal his identity very well – unless _Taeyong _had told him. He probably had. ‘We’d like it if maybe you’d like to come to dinner with us? We’re going to _Jihwaja._’

Oh _God_.

Doyoung stared at them.

This wasn’t a possessive thing. It wasn’t an aggressive _human _thing. There wasn’t anything for him to hate. This was a: _my cat wants a friend thing_. And that was worse.

‘No, thanks,’ said Doyoung, eyes flitting around anxiously. He wanted to get the hell out of there. _Now_.

Johnny sighed.

_Johnny_.

‘Please,’ he said, and there was a firmness to his voice. The more that Doyoung looked, the more that he saw quite a soft-featured sort of face, but he also talked in a way that said he wasn’t afraid to take charge. ‘Taeyong would really like it.’

‘I have plans.’

‘Well maybe you could meet up some other time?’ Johnny suggested.

Doyoung shot a furious glare at Taeyong, a glare that told him to rein in his human, but the cat didn’t look like he could rein in a mouse. ‘Maybe not,’ he said abruptly. With that, he took his leave, before either of them could protest. He dodged around them, quick on his feet from three years of running. _Three years… _Sometimes it felt like less. Sometimes it felt like longer.

He didn’t look back, and to their credit neither of them seemed to make any attempt at following him.

At some point, it had started to rain.

Doyoung pulled his hood all the way up over his beanie and turned his face down.

He had spent an awful lot of time with his head down.

*

The problem with Doyoung was that he was cursed.

At least, that was how he felt as he walked down the street that day. There had been other things in his past that had made him feel that way, but he’d put them down to a combination of bad luck, human evil, and genuine unpleasant coincidence.

He could have written this one off as coincidence too if it had been the second time, but the _third_?

For a few days, he steered clear of the centre of the city, sticking inside to the smaller radius around the warehouse where he knew the routes. He strayed to the quiet side streets, quite a way in the opposite direction to the market where he’d encountered Taeyong for the first time, and just walked. He really did like walking. It made a nice change from all of the running.

The weather was better, today. It was still very cold, but it wasn’t raining, and that was a change for the good. In the warehouse, there weren’t many ways to dry out clothes, and in the winter being freezing and wet was a recipe for sickness, and however much Doyoung resented his own weakness, he was rather susceptible to illness.

He glanced around, wary for danger.

No matter how relaxed he might be in a quiet area, in the good weather, far from where he saw a risk of encountering his new _magnet _of a cat counterpart, he was always watchful.

He knew that he was on lists. There was a special corner of the city police service dedicated _just _to hybrid affairs – keeping an eye to make sure people weren’t employing them, picking up strays – hell, they were even supposed to make sure that hybrids weren’t being abused.

_Hah_.

Like humans would ever challenge another of their kind to protect someone like him.

No, they sure were looking out for him, but not in the nice way.

He knew that his name, his face, would be stamped with a huge red notice. At his last shelter, a shelter designed _just _for special cases like him, they’d warned him that his three-turned-four-turned-five-strike-rule was at its maximum capacity. Any further attempt at freedom would result in a charge of some sort of public order offence at the very least. They’d lock him up.

Doyoung was _wanted_.

And that wasn’t in the nice way either.

There was no one nearby who looked to be a threat, but he’d learned over the last three years that danger could come from the most unassuming of origins.

Like the nice-but-not-too-nice silver Hyundai coupe that pulled half onto the sidewalk a little way up the street.

From one door emerged a cat hybrid, unfamiliar to Doyoung though he was quite well-acquainted in sight with the people of this area. He had flat jet-black ears nestled amongst hair that was just as dark, but he was given away by the long, well-groomed black tail that wound lazily into a curl as he leant back to the car door.

Doyoung saw him kiss someone in the driving seat before closing the door with a wave.

Then, his eyes turned to the other side of the car where another cat had emerged, clambering from the back seat because it was only a two-door, and Doyoung ducked into the nearest doorway and groaned.

_Seriously_?

At that moment, he knew it. He knew that he was cursed.

There could be no coincidence that would bring him into the company of this stranger three times in two weeks, in three separate parts of the city, once alone, once with a human, and once now with another hybrid.

It was ridiculous.

_Cursed_.

He took a deep breath, wondering whether to make a break for it now or hope that they went in the other direction.

There was a nagging thought in the back of his mind.

Was all this… supposed to happen?

When something went beyond coincidence did it become fate?

He shook his head. _No_. He didn’t believe in that kind of thing.

After one deep breath, he peeked back out of the porch under which he’d hidden himself, and he swore aloud. They were coming this way, and it was too late for him to dive out now.

‘Oh my gosh!’ beamed Taeyong as soon as he saw him.

This time, Doyoung kept his groan internal, but he knew that his exasperation must have shown on his face.

The other hybrid, the new one, caught his eye, and Doyoung straightened up.

The stranger was smaller than both Doyoung and Taeyong, but in a way he was bigger in presence. His posture was confident, his back straight and chin upwardly inclined and chest puffed out. Up close, it struck Doyoung that he was probably the most distinctly _feline _cat hybrid that he’d seen in a long time. Even his features were catlike, and there was a clever glint in his eye that Doyoung associated with his kind.

‘Who’s this, Tyongie?’ he asked.

‘This is - ’ Taeyong’s smile faltered as he looked at him. ‘Well, I don’t – I don’t know your name. We’ve run into each other a couple of times.’

‘Introduce yourself!’ announced the other hybrid in quite a _commanding _voice, turning to Doyoung too.

‘I – I’m Jeno,’ he said, picking out the first name that he could think of. Jeno was a hybrid that Doyoung had met long ago in his first temporary shelter. ‘But I should be - ’

‘Liar!’ declared the black cat.

Doyoung could have choked on the cool winter air.

Taeyong looked from his friend to Doyoung with an apologetic expression. ‘Sorry,’ he said softly, ‘Ten always knows when someone’s - ’

‘Tell us,’ whined the cat called Ten and the intimidating air was lost a little with that tone.

‘I – er – ’ Doyoung was frozen.

‘The universe keeps bringing us together,’ said Taeyong with a gentle kind of earnest, echoing Doyoung’s own thoughts from earlier. ‘Please at least let’s be not-strangers even if you don’t want to be friends.’

Doyoung sighed.

They were hybrids.

Hybrids, not humans.

He had faith in hybrids. ‘Doyoung,’ he conceded, ‘I’m Doyoung. Truthful enough for you?’ he threw in Ten’s direction.

‘It’ll do.’ Then, though, his face softened quite distinctly as he looked to his friend. ‘You didn’t tell me you’d made any other hybrid friends Taeyong? I’m starting to feel offended. Were you too ashamed to introduce me?’

Doyoung gritted his teeth. He was supposed to be passing for human but everyone that he met now seemed to be able to spot the truth in a second.

_Hybrid intuition._

‘Like I said, we only met a couple of times,’ said Taeyong quietly. ‘We just kind of bumped into each other.’

Ten looked back to Doyoung. ‘We’re going to see a movie and then get some food. Wanna come?’

‘Actually I’m busy,’ said Doyoung. This was becoming something of a habit.

Ten gave him an appraising look and all of a sudden he felt horribly analysed. Ten was… different, to Taeyong.

Taeyong had that air of being… spoiled. He was one of those hybrids that just _adored _their human, he could tell it. He was one of those hybrids that had never spent a day in a halfway shelter or out on the streets and it showed.

But Ten?

He was harder to read.

There was none of the naivety that hovered around Taeyong’s head like a neon sign.

His eyes flickered from Doyoung’s hat to his throat to his clothes and they narrowed perceptibly. ‘Alright, forget the movie. Get a coffee with us.’ His voice was laced with instruction. This was a hybrid who knew how to get what he wanted. ‘Go on. Taeyong’s been talking my ear off about wanting friends and he’s not too used to being out and about by himself so consider me his chaperone.’

‘I can’t,’ said Doyoung through gritted teeth, trying to convey any kind of message to him. If Ten was as streetwise as his sharp eyes suggested, then he ought to know full well why Doyoung wanted to be left alone.

But the hybrid didn’t let up.

‘Go on. One coffee. I’m buying.’ He gave him a gleaming smile.

It really was cold. The thought of a nice hot coffee in his hands wasn’t… entirely repellent. ‘Fine,’ he muttered.

‘Excellent!’ Ten beamed.

‘Really?’ gaped Taeyong.

‘Yeah, yeah fine. But I really have to go after.’

They didn’t go to the local movie theatre, which Doyoung knew to be down the next street. Ten led the way instead to a small coffee shop that Doyoung recognised from the outside but had never entered. Taeyong hung back a little, closer to _him_ rather than to his friend.

That was annoying.

He hunched up his shoulders as if to hide himself away in his overcoat, but he followed their leader diligently. It had been a long time since he’d talked properly to anyone other than Jungwoo and Yukhei and Kun, and maybe just maybe a part of him craved this thrill of meeting new hybrids. He’d always had the belief that his kind should stick together.

‘What do you want?’ asked Ten.

‘Er…’ Doyoung looked up at the board inside the small shop.

‘Taeyong will have a caramel latte with all the extras. I’ll have a juice.’

‘A _juice_?’ Doyoung raised his eyebrows. That wasn’t what he’d expected from him.

‘I’m a little more susceptible to our feline sensitivities… intolerances…’ Ten said lightly. ‘Caffeine _plus_ milk? It’s not a good look on me.’

‘Right.’ Doyoung had thought he looked more catlike than Taeyong. Maybe more of his genetic make-up came from that side. ‘I’ll have anything. I don’t care. No allergies.’

Ten hummed as they waited for their drinks, tapping his fingers in a tune on the counter. Taeyong, on the other hand, shifted slightly awkwardly, but then after a long pause he said:

‘I’m really glad you came with us!’ When he spoke, he had a bright voice, optimistic, like he wanted to project happiness.

Doyoung looked down. ‘Right.’ Then, deciding that it would definitely be rude to ignore him completely, he asked, ‘who was in the car? Was it your human again?’

‘Oh?’ Taeyong raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘Oh no. It was Jaehyun. Jaehyun is Ten’s… human…’ he seemed to stumble over the words that Doyoung had used, like it wasn’t a way of speaking that he was familiar with.

‘You two don’t live together?’ he nodded to Ten.

Taeyong laughed. ‘No, no, Ten and Jaehyun live down the hall. Jaehyun is good friends with Johnny and so I always went on playdates with Ten and - ’

Doyoung couldn’t decide between interrupting or vomiting at the word _playdates _so he managed to do neither.

‘ – and we’ve been besties ever since. I’ve been… well… I’ve been trying to get out more recently because you know, I want to make some friends, and Ten knows everyone. He’s out all the time. So he’s been offering to show me more around town.’

‘Right.’

‘Nice to see you boys talking,’ said Ten with a light tone that Doyoung didn’t entirely like. It was quite hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic whenever he spoke, and he had this air that he knew more than what he was letting on about everything that came out of his mouth. ‘See, Tyongie? Told you that you could make a friend.’

_I’m not his friend_, Doyoung wanted to say, but he just took his drink and stomped over to the nearest table.

‘So, tell me all about how you two met before, since I’ve been out of the loop.’

Taeyong launched into a long, animated explanation to Ten, and Doyoung looked up in interest just long enough to observe the way that he talked to his friend. He was a strange character to observe. When he’d met Doyoung the first time, alone, he’d been bright, excited, like Doyoung was the first person he’d ever spoken to, but the second time, and today, he’d come across more shy. Maybe it was because these times he’d been in the company first of his human, and now of Ten. It would be easy to be drowned out.

In Doyoung’s experience, humans liked to talk over everyone.

And Ten? Well, he was certainly loud in personality.

‘What brings you to this part of town?’ asked Ten, directing it to Doyoung. ‘I know most of the hybrids around here but I don’t think we’ve met.’

Doyoung felt his eyes boring into him, like he could draw out the answer through osmosis. Or telepathy. ‘I – er – I live around here,’ he said, because there was really no other convincing explanation.

‘Where abouts?’

‘Just… around.’

Ten raised his eyebrows and fiddled quite openly with his collar as he looked back to Taeyong.

They were both wearing collars.

They might as well have been chains, tethering them to their humans even when they weren’t present.

Ten’s was black and studded with red and sleek like the rest of him. Taeyong’s was prettier, louder, white with little diamante around near the buckle. The stitching was pink. He seemed to wear his quite loose, whereas Ten’s was fixed so tight to the skin that Doyoung had to wonder whether it hurt.

By the way that his fingers caressed over it though, he supposed that he liked it.

‘Why do you always wear that hat?’ blurted out Taeyong.

Doyoung’s gaze snapped back to him. ‘Why not?’

‘Doesn’t it hurt your ears?’ he asked, voice too loud, and Doyoung’s eyes shot around the café in anxiety in case someone was listening in on them.

‘No.’

That was only semi-true. It didn’t hurt, to pin his ears down – they were floppy anyway – but there was a degree of discomfort. Sometimes if they folded wrong he had to slip down an alley and rearrange them. It was only a minor inconvenience, though, compared to what would happen if any humans spotted an unattended hybrid in their midst.

Humans were stupid. The lot of them. All it took was a beanie hat and a hoodie or coat that fell past his small tail and they were fooled.

Taeyong was not done. ‘It’s like you don’t want people to know you’re a - ’

‘_Taeyong - _’ Ten started, in a surprisingly warning tone, but Doyoung had already stood up.

His chair wailed across the stone floor as he pushed it back. ‘I have to go.’

‘But you haven’t finished your coffee - ’

‘I really have to go,’ he repeated. He took a huge gulp of the drink, enjoying for a split second the sensation as it warmed down his throat, and then he turned on his heel. He was almost at the door when he looked back. ‘Thanks for the drink,’ he said, eyes mainly on Ten, who didn’t seem at all taken back by his escape strategy.

‘Look after yourself,’ said Ten. ‘I mean it.’

Taeyong looked totally miserable. ‘Bye.’

Doyoung ducked out, the cold breeze hitting him with a rush of relief. It was more comforting than the warm, stuffy air of the café.

As he half-ran down the street, he could not stop looking over his shoulder. He was filled with anxiety that they could be following him. What if it was all some kind of set-up? What if they’d been instructed to get him inside by their humans?

His stomach flipped over.

In that café, he could have been moments from capture.

It was dangerous to be too trusting.

He wanted to go back to the warehouse. Sometimes it felt like a prison, but right now it felt like four walls between which he could be safe. But he couldn’t go there. _No_. They could be following him. He could not risk the safety of Yukhei and Jungwoo and Kun, not until he could be sure that he’d shaken off Ten and Taeyong and anyone else who had set their sights on him today.

Tonight, he wouldn’t go home.

There was a railroad bridge that he knew, not too far away, underneath which some fox strays hid away. They’d let him camp there for the night.

Doyoung had slept in worse places.


	3. Chapter 3

Taeyong was cooking.

He’d been cooking all day.

It was Johnny’s birthday.

February was the busiest month for Taeyong, because he had first Johnny’s birthday, then Jaehyun’s, and then Ten’s, and it was the least that he could do to make them his very best recipes.

Johnny was the most important of all, because Johnny gave him everything, and Taeyong always longed to give him _something _back.

The cake was already baking, so he wandered over to check the miyeok that he’d left to soak. He was waiting for Ten to arrive, because he’d sent him to three different markets in search of the freshest mussels. This soup was important for Johnny’s birthday and Taeyong would accept nothing but the best, not when Johnny’s parents would be there as well.

He’d lived under their roof for so long that they’d really become his parents, too.

He had never been given the chance to get to know his real mom and dad. He didn’t even know where he had come from. Some of the pricier breeds were engineered almost entirely in labs these days, but Taeyong didn’t think that he was one of those because at first it had taken a while for Johnny to really identify him. So he supposed that his parents were probably out there somewhere.

‘Alright, the next time you send me to a fish market, the friendship is over,’ announced Ten as he let himself through the front door and held out a bag with a look of revulsion.

‘Thanks Tennie,’ he exhaled. ‘You know I want everything to be perfect for him.’

‘I don’t get you,’ said Ten, flopping back against the counter as if the journey had been _deeply _exerting. ‘I mean no offence sweetie, but you’re the most spoiled kitty in the world - ’

‘Am _not_!’

‘You schedule your daily lazing hours,’ Ten rolled his eyes. ‘You’re spoiled as fuck, which is fine, but then when it comes to cooking you’re like a machine. You know Johnny doesn’t expect you to do all this, right?’

‘I know,’ Taeyong shrugged. ‘He always offers.’

‘So why…?’

Taeyong looked at him in surprise. He knew that Ten didn’t enjoy that kind of thing. Ten was sort of the opposite of him. Because they were partners, he and Jaehyun mostly split the chores in the apartment, but since Jaehyun was out at work all day Ten bore the brunt of it. So Ten was usually busy, and he didn’t like it – he was always complaining about his responsibilities. But Taeyong, who had nothing else to do, rather enjoyed his little pockets of work.

‘I like it. You know I like it.’

Ten shuddered. ‘Well I still can’t deal with you _liking _cooking. No one _likes _cooking. It’s just what you have to do so that you can eat.’

Taeyong glared, affronted. ‘Cooking is amazing, Ten. When I’m cooking, it’s like… like I’m the best at something. No one can cook like me. When I put something down in front of Johnny and I see his face light up and his shoulders relax and he just looks so happy, it’s like…’ he looked down, ‘it’s like there’s a reason for me being here. Otherwise what’s the point? He does everything for me and I offer him nothing. I don’t want to be useless.’

Ten frowned and took his hand. ‘Are you upset about this? I was only joking, you know I’d die for your cooking.’

Taeyong shook his head. ‘No, no, I’m just being stupid.’

‘Hey,’ Ten squeezed his hand and turned him around before Taeyong could bury himself back in his cooking, ‘hey you’re upset. Talk to me.’

Taeyong took a shaky breath. ‘Ten I feel so worthless,’ he choked in one go. ‘I know it’s dumb and I know how lucky I am but I do. I’m stuck in this _routine _and I’m going to be stuck in it _forever _and I don’t just want to be that spoiled cat who lounges around at home ‘til the day he dies. I don’t.’

‘C’mere,’ murmured Ten, and he pulled him into a tight hug. ‘Have you talked to Johnny about this?’

‘No,’ he whispered. ‘Not the bad parts. I don’t want him to feel like he’s let me down. He’s done everything right. I’m the one with the problem.’

‘You haven’t got a problem, Tyongie,’ Ten pressed a kiss to his cheek; they’d always been affectionate that way. ‘Is this why you’ve started going out by yourself? Why you asked me to take you to some new places?’

Taeyong nodded into Ten’s shoulder. Since his first trip out to the market, he’d tried to go out again by himself but he was finding it hard. He’d recruited Ten because Ten was used to it and he knew _everyone _and Taeyong hoped that he’d have better luck that way. ‘I thought maybe… You know I really want some friends. And maybe like… someone…’

Ten pulled back and raised his eyebrows. ‘Someone…?’

‘You know,’ Taeyong flushed red, ‘like you have Jaehyun.’

‘Oh.’ Ten’s look of worry turned to a smirk. ‘You’re looking for a _date_? You should have told me so.’

Taeyong looked down, embarrassed. ‘Well it’s never going to happen. No one would want me, I couldn’t even make a friend when I went out, and even if I _did _find someone, what would I do? I could hardly bring them home to Johnny, could I? If they’re a hybrid then they’ll have their own owner, and it they’re a human then they’d want me to live with _them _and I can never, ever leave Johnny. So I can never be with someone.’

‘Whoa, whoa, hold up,’ said Ten. ‘Lots to unpack there. First of all, I know you have zero spatial awareness but have you _really _never noticed the way that people look at you?’

Taeyong stared at him with wide eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Tyongie, _everyone _wants you. You’re beautiful. You’re the sort of beautiful that shouldn’t be too close to the road because the drivers might lose control of their vehicles staring at you.’

Taeyong gave him a shove and hid his face as he turned even redder.

‘The only reason people don’t approach you is because they think you’re with _Johnny. _And as for _never _being able to be with someone? Things work themselves out, sweetie, and if they don’t then you work them out yourself. There are always ways. Tomorrow, Johnny could fall in love with someone, and you go around their place and you discover they have a gorgeous hybrid and you fall in love too and the four of you live happily ever after. Or, you could ask Johnny about adopting a second hybrid.’

‘No,’ Taeyong said quickly. ‘No way. He’d think that I was bored of his company. _And _imagine if I ended up not liking them and I was stuck with someone in the apartment _forever_. I’m not sharing my home _or_ Johnny like that.’

‘Cats are so _possessive_,’ Ten sighed theatrically, as if he wasn’t one himself. ‘It’s all about _territory _all the time.’

‘The last time someone asked for Jaehyun’s number in that restaurant we went to, you _hissed_, Ten.’

‘Yes, well,’ Ten straightened up, ‘I do what I have to do.’

There was a moment of quiet, during which Taeyong busied himself again with the soup.

‘The point is, Tyongie, you’ve only been going out for a couple of weeks. Most people don’t fall in love on day one. You need to give it time.’

‘But _Ten _the only person I’ve even _met _is Doyoung,’ he whined.

At the mention of the name, Ten’s expression shifted slightly. ‘Mm.’

‘And I don’t think he wants to be friends. He hates me. Oh _God _what if everyone I meet hates me?’

Ten opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it again. ‘Trust me on this one: it’s not you, it’s him.’

‘What do you mean?’

Ten picked at some of the food that Taeyong had left out semi-prepared. ‘Look, Doyoung is… he just has to be careful. Because he’s a stray.’

‘I know,’ said Taeyong.

‘He keeps his ears hidden away because he can’t risk anyone spotting him.’

‘I know,’ he said again. ‘The first time we met he was running away from some guys so I told them I didn’t know where he went.’

‘Wow,’ Ten grinned, ‘first you’re looking for a date and now you’re lying to the police? Going out has changed you.’

‘They weren’t police,’ he mumbled, ‘they were mall security.’

‘Whatever happened to us not keeping secrets from each other?’ Ten pouted, but then he seemed to remember what they’d been talking about. ‘Anyway, like I say, I don’t think Doyoung has a problem with _you_, he’s just being careful. Wary. You know that I was in a halfway shelter before Jae picked me up and… and it wasn’t nice.’

Taeyong met his eyes. He knew about the life that Ten had been through before he’d ended up down the hall and he knew that Ten didn’t like to talk about it too much. He knew that when he’d been abandoned by his first owners, who could no longer afford to look after him, he’d found it impossible to find a new home because everyone thought that black cats were bad lack.

He knew that he’d tried to make it by himself but had been picked up and taken to one of those shelters. He knew that Ten had hated it, and that sometimes Jaehyun had to calm him down when the memories got too close, because only Jaehyun knew everything. He was the one that Ten shared his soul with.

‘So Doyoung is probably trying to stay out on the street. And he’s just worried because we’re close with our humans. I didn’t trust them either before I met Jae.’

‘Do you think he’s okay?’

Ten leant back and sighed. ‘I mean he looks alright. He’s not too thin, he’s not hurt in any way that we can see. He seems pretty tough. I’m sure he can take care of himself.’

‘Do you think we should help?’

‘I don’t know. If anything, proximity to us could just get him into more trouble.’

Taeyong bit his lip. ‘I think we should. I think I should. The world keeps bringing us together, Tennie. Every time I go out I seem to run into him, and this isn’t exactly a small city. I think something’s telling me that I have to _help._’

‘Tyong, Johnny wouldn’t like it if he found out that - ’

‘Well this isn’t about Johnny,’ he snapped, and then he covered his mouth with his hand. ‘I – I can’t believe I just said that,’ he whispered, ‘oh _God _that was a horrible thing to say.’

‘Hey, it’s fine,’ said Ten quickly, ‘some things are just… hybrid stuff. You’re right. Humans wouldn’t always understand. You want to have a life outside and that means not everything is going to be about Johnny anymore. I shouldn’t have used that as a reason.’

Taeyong cleared his throat.

He felt terrible.

‘Well today is about Johnny,’ he said, pushing all thoughts of strays and shelters and bunny hybrids to the back of his mind. ‘Will you pass me the sesame oil?’

*

It was three weeks later that Taeyong finally made the journey.

Most of the three weeks had been occupied trying to convince Ten to ask around about Doyoung. Initially Ten was adamant that it wouldn’t be a good idea to talk about him to anyone, but Taeyong had been so determined that eventually Ten had raised the issue with a couple of his old friends – friends from his own time out of the system.

They’d heard a few things. Enough.

The remainder of the time had been occupied with Taeyong trying to pluck up the courage to actually go to the warehouse that they’d told Ten about. The fact that he wanted to make a visit, he had not mentioned to Ten. As far as Ten knew, Taeyong was just happy to know that at the very least, Doyoung was living inside. Ten would _flip out _if he knew that Taeyong was thinking of seeking him out.

Accidents were one thing, but he wasn’t even sure himself how Doyoung would react to being approached.

But he had to do it. Something deep inside was telling him so. He didn’t _believe _in coincidence. There was no way that he’d come across Doyoung three separate times without something trying to bring them together.

He’d been going out in search of a purpose, and now he had one.

He glanced around as he stepped gingerly between the two haphazard buildings. He had never, ever been somewhere like this, even with Johnny. The little chunk of land was not too far from the apartment, and quite close to the market, but it was nestled amongst busier streets that evidently occupied everyone’s interests enough and left these abandoned buildings untouched. One looked like an old factory, and there were signs up notifying that it would be demolished soon, but the signs were old and rusted and bent out of shape, so maybe the project had just been forgotten altogether.

The other was the warehouse, and that was where Taeyong was headed.

It was scary.

The busy streets seemed far away though they were just a few yards, and even though the winter was edging to its close, Taeyong was shivering. This place felt dangerous, not at all like his warm, cosy apartment.

But he’d been going out a lot since Johnny’s birthday, and he was getting much better at it.

He didn’t want to be a scaredy-cat.

There was nothing to fear from a couple of old buildings.

Until –

He whipped around in a panic when he heard the loud growl.

His hands shot up in surrender, one still holding the insulated bag of dinners that he’d brought with him. ‘Please don’t kill me!’ he gasped.

He was face to face with a huge dog hybrid, a head taller than him. A tremor of fear ran down Taeyong’s back, and he stumbled a pace backwards but tripped over his own feet. He should never have come to this place alone.

If this hybrid attacked him then – then he’d never see Johnny again. He’d never see Ten again.

‘I’ll go!’ he stammered. ‘I’ll go right now!’

The hybrid looked at him for a moment and then his face slackened and his shoulders slumped. ‘Oh God did I scare you? I’m sorry. Sorry sorry sorry.’

Taeyong stared, frozen in position. ‘I – what?’

‘I promise I wasn’t growling at you! I stubbed my foot on this brick just when I came around the corner.’ He kicked at some of the rubble and gesticulated wildly, and Taeyong flinched in terror. ‘Oh _sorry_,’ he groaned again.

‘You’re not going to kill me?’ Taeyong squeaked.

‘What? No.’

‘Are you going to rob me?’

‘Huh? Of course not. Actually maybe, that bag smells _amazing_.’

Taeyong lowered his arms slightly. His heart was just starting to slow down from the panicked pounding that it had taken up seconds earlier.

‘Are you lost? I can show you the way back to the street.’

Taeyong gulped. ‘No, I – I’m looking for someone.’

‘Who?’ asked the hybrid, and he took a step closer but Taeyong automatically took one back.

‘D-Doyoung,’ mumbled Taeyong. ‘I’m looking for Doyoung.’

‘You should have said so,’ beamed the hybrid, and Taeyong’s lips parted in surprise. ‘He’s inside. You’re lucky, he’s not usually here during the day.’

Taeyong exhaled in relief.

Then, though, the hybrid glared again. ‘Wait, who are you? I’m supposed to be on watch.’

‘Oh – oh,’ Taeyong’s breath was still shaky. ‘I’m… well I’m Doyoung’s friend.’

_Friend_.

‘How do I know you’re not with the authorities?’ he straightened up.

‘Um… I brought lunch?’ Taeyong suggested weekly, holding up the bag.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Taeyong.’ Now that he had had more time to look at the hybrid, he didn’t look so scary. He was big, yes, but his ears were floppy and golden, and his face looked cheeky rather than mean.

‘Alright, wait here.’

Taeyong shifted awkwardly from foot to foot as the hybrid lifted a metal shutter, the type that they used to close shops, and slipped under it into the warehouse.

It seemed like a lifetime before Doyoung emerged.

For a moment, Taeyong wanted to sigh in relief, but then he saw the expression on Doyoung’s face.

‘What the _fuck _are you doing here?’ he snapped.

Taeyong gulped. ‘I – I brought food,’ he said quietly.

Doyoung pulled the shutter down behind him with a clang and rounded on him again. ‘How did you find me? How did you find _us_?’

‘T-Ten knows some people,’ he whispered. ‘I wanted to – to help out.’

‘Oh _fuck_,’ Doyoung groaned in despair, kneading his eyes. ‘I can’t believe this. I’m cursed. I really am cursed. Cursed with a cat-shadow that I didn’t ask for.’

‘I just want to help,’ Taeyong started, voice wobbly but determined. ‘Don’t you think it’s weird that we kept running into each other? I think I’m _meant_ to help.’

Doyoung shook his head with a derisive laugh. ‘I’m not your _project_, doll. My life isn’t some game for you to dip into. You need to go. Now.’

‘At least take this,’ said Taeyong, and he held out the bag of food like an olive branch. ‘I managed to fit ten boxes in there. I spent all of yesterday and this morning cooking. I’m really good, I swear.’

‘I don’t need food from you.’

‘Really?’ Taeyong finally decided to fight back. ‘Because the first time I met you, you were stealing groceries and you know what? Home-cooked meals are better than that at least.’

‘I don’t want anything from you.’ 

‘Look,’ he began, ‘I know that you don’t exactly want me around, but Ten said that it’s because you’re worried about humans and I _promise _no one will ever know you’re here. I haven’t even _talked _to Johnny about you again. I’m a hybrid too, remember? I understand. I’m like you.’

That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, because Doyoung’s hands clenched into fists and his knuckles went white in anger. ‘You are _nothing _like me.’

‘I _am_. And Ten says our kind have to stick together sometimes.’

Doyoung ran a tense hand through his hair. ‘Tell me, sweetheart, what do you to survive? Oh yeah, _nothing_. It’s pathetic. You hybrids that just sit around and let humans use you in return for a warm bed… I hate it. You’re an embarrassment to the rest of us. You’re nothing like me. Don’t insult me.’

At that, Taeyong straightened up. ‘You know nothing about me. Johnny isn’t like that. He’s my owner. My friend. He takes care of me. He doesn’t _use _me. He would never.’

‘Is that what he tells you when he fucks you?’ Doyoung said derisively. ‘God, you’re naïve.’

‘Not that it’s any of your business, but our relationship isn’t like that.’

For just a second, Doyoung looked slightly surprised. ‘So what exactly _do_ you do all day?’

Taeyong hesitated. His cheeks turned pink. ‘I… I do lots of things.’

‘Like what?’

‘I… I…’

‘I bet you’ve never worked a day in your life,’ said Doyoung. ‘Just a spoiled little house kitty.’

‘I _do _work,’ he said, but his head felt oddly cloudy and he couldn’t seem to think of what to say. ‘I cook and I - ’ He stopped anyway, because Doyoung was laughing.

‘Go back to your palace, princess. It’s not safe for you out in the wild like this.’

‘You’re really rude, you know that right?’ retorted Taeyong. His fear of this place, his worry at how Doyoung would react, had been replaced by frustration. He was starting to feel very hot with anger, a bead of sweat running down his forehead. ‘Maybe I am spoiled, maybe I am naïve, but at least I’m not an obnoxious, _stubborn - _’

‘You _really _don’t want to finish that - ’

Taeyong balled his own hands up into small fists. ‘What? You _are _stubborn. Otherwise you’d take the food. It doesn’t mean we have to be friends. But refusing help is stupid as hell, even my spoiled, princess ass knows that.’

Finally, _finally_, Doyoung’s lips twitched towards a smile, like he was impressed at Taeyong’s language. ‘Fine,’ he said, and he snatched the bag from his hand. ‘Thanks. Now go home, and never, _ever _come here again. And if you tell _anyone _where we are, then - ’

Taeyong buckled over, his hands on his thighs, as a wave of nausea rippled over him.

‘Taeyong? Are you alright?’ Doyoung’s voice changed drastically.

‘I’m fine,’ he gasped, but as he said it he felt a pain in his abdomen and he squeezed his eyes shut. He still felt hot, but the more that he concentrated on it, the less that it felt like anger.

No, he was _hot_.

_Shit_.

‘You don’t look fine.’

‘I’m alright,’ he whispered, trying to focus. ‘I’m okay. I’m – _ah_!’

The second pain was worse. There was still a wintery chill in the air even though spring was on the horizon, but Taeyong felt like his skin was burning. He bit down on his fist and straightened his back.

‘I n-need to go.’

Doyoung didn’t give a derisive – _‘good_!’ – though, like he’d expected. He looked concerned and he rested a hand on Taeyong’s shoulder. ‘Are you sick?’

‘I’m just - ’ Taeyong’s cheeks burned with humiliation, and he mumbled it in a tiny voice. ‘I think I’m getting my heat.’

Doyoung’s arm fell to his side. ‘Oh for fuck’s sake.’

How Taeyong had missed the symptoms, he didn’t know. Usually he was good at tracking his heats even if they didn’t stick to a regular schedule. But he’d been so distracted worrying about everyone’s birthdays, and then worrying about Doyoung and the warehouse, and then concentrating on all of his trips out of the apartment, that he must have missed the signs and forgotten to check his calendar.

His face had gone very red, at his cheeks, but the rest had paled considerably.

‘_Seriously_?’ Doyoung groaned. ‘You don’t even track your heats?’

Taeyong blushed, but it didn’t make much of a difference. ‘I do – I do. I’ve been so busy with everything else, coming out here, I must have forgotten. Oh _damnit!_’ he added in a whine, as his arm crossed his navel protectively as he felt a twinge of sensation.

Doyoung stared at him, jaw set and lips in a severe line, and then – ‘Let’s get you home,’ he muttered darkly, ‘come on, I’ll walk you.’

‘You’ll _what_?’ Taeyong choked in astonishment.

‘Oh please, I might not like you, but I’m not cruel. I’m not letting you walk around by yourself like this. It’s not safe to be in heat on the street. C’mon. I’ll walk you home. What’s your address?’

‘I can walk myself,’ said Taeyong, but he doubled over, a low mewl escaping his lips as he clutched his stomach, then his waist. ‘It hurts.’

Doyoung shoved the bag of food under the shutter of the warehouse, where his friend would surely find it, and then he snapped: ‘Start walking,’ and Taeyong obeyed as if on puppet strings.

‘H-how do you deal with your heats, then?’ he whimpered as he started to walk in what had to be the direction of the apartment.

Doyoung raised his eyebrows. ‘Heat suppressants. Everyone out here uses them. You should too.’

Taeyong surveyed him with wide eyes. ‘But Johnny says it would be bad for my body to take suppressants for a long time. He says it’s not good for you.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ he muttered, ‘_Johnny says _this, _Johnny says _that. How do you cope, anyway, if he doesn’t fuck you?’

Taeyong flushed again. ‘I handle it myself.’

‘Seriously?’ Doyoung was quite quick to rearrange his face but Taeyong didn’t miss the moment in which he looked almost _impressed_.

‘Not as pathetic as you thought, huh?’ Taeyong said, but he winced. ‘I go through it myself and Johnny brings me warmies and drinks when I need them.’

‘What the hell is a _warmie_?’

Taeyong looked at him in surprise. ‘It’s like a plushie. You put it in the microwave and it gets all warm and toasty.’

Doyoung rolled his eyes. ‘Right. You were doing okay up until that part.’

Taeyong pulled a face. ‘They’re great, Doyoungie. They’re all snuggly and – ’

‘Do _not _finish that sentence and do _not _call me Doyoungie ever again or I’ll leave you right here in the street by yourself after all.’

‘Sorry.’

Taeyong couldn’t help it. He called everyone cute names. Johnny was already lovely enough, he supposed, but he had always called Ten _Tennie _and he even called Jaehyun _Jaehyunnie _though he knew it was cheeky for a hybrid to say, regardless of age.

‘Thanks for walking me home,’ he said quietly.

‘It’s fine,’ Doyoung muttered, ‘like I said, I’m not an asshole.’

Taeyong thanked his lucky stars, too, that he had kept this trip a secret from Johnny, because his owner would probably not let him out by himself ever again if he found out that he’d accidentally gone into heat in the street.

But he’d be okay, now.

Doyoung would walk him home, and then he could climb into bed before it got too bad and by the time that Johnny got home from work he’d be tucked up ready to suffer the next couple of days with the help of a hot stuffie and a TV show to binge.


	4. Chapter 4

Doyoung looked around with wide eyes.

He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help but betray his shock in his expression.

The first time that he had seen Taeyong in the market, he’d known that he was wealthy enough. Or that his owner was. It wasn’t even the clothes necessarily, but rather a combination of the way that he presented himself and the fact that he’d gone to the most expensive store for his groceries.

He hadn’t realised that he was _rich_-rich, though.

The apartment was _huge_.

Most of it was open-plan, with the door opening into a vast living space that extended to a couch and chairs and wall-mounted television, to a dining space with an eight-seater table, to a kitchen that was partly hidden by a pretty arch decorated with lights that seemed far more in tune with the style of Taeyong than of his human.

In fact, a lot of the apartment seemed very Taeyong, like his owner had gone to great pains to make it right for him.

‘Th-thank you,’ said Taeyong. His voice was trembly.

‘It’s fine,’ sighed Doyoung again. Taeyong had been thanking him all the way home. ‘Where’s your bedroom?’

Taeyong hobbled his way through the apartment and into one of the rooms off the far hallway. Doyoung followed with an air of trepidation. It had been a long time since he’d been in a proper home, and he’d never been in one as fancy as this. He was careful not to touch anything.

Taeyong crawled straight into the giant bed in his room.

The bed really was huge, so huge that he had to climb into it more than anything. It had a coronet overhead with a small canopy of pale blue curtains. There were pillows and a collection of blankets piled up rather untidily that made Doyoung wonder whether Taeyong had been nesting over the last couple of days without realising it. There was also a crammed bookshelf.

Doyoung ran his eyes over it quickly but his reading wasn’t good enough to make out the titles. Some were short and level in height like fiction novels, but others were tall and lopsided with papers sticking out of the tops.

‘You read a lot?’ he asked absentmindedly.

‘Mm,’ Taeyong faceplanted into the pillow and drew his knees up to his chest.

Doyoung sighed in envy at the thought of reading all those books. ‘This place is really nice. What did you say your human does again?’

‘His name is _Johnny_.’ Taeyong’s voice was muffled by the pillow. ‘And he’s an architect. But his parents bought him the apartment when he moved out. When _we_ moved out.’

‘Right,’ Doyoung nodded. _Rich parents_. ‘Do you – er – you know – do you need anything?’

‘Can you get me some water?’ he said croakily.

‘Yeah, yeah. Then I’m going,’ he said, to remind himself as much as Taeyong. ‘Your… _he_ won’t be back in the next few minutes, will he?’

‘Not for ages,’ mumbled Taeyong.

When he went back to the kitchen, he took another moment to look around. Everything in this room was pristine and clean and impressive given that Doyoung knew full well that Taeyong had made a huge bag of hot food earlier. The appliances were high-tech, covered in dials and digital displays and features that Doyoung wouldn’t recognise. Under one counter, there was a rack of more books.

He lifted out the first in the line and examined the cover.

‘_Tae-yong’s –’ _he paused. It was handwritten and that was harder than printed lettering. ‘_Taeyong’s recipes #7_,’ he finished. He shook his head and put the book back. He almost wanted to smile at how very different their lives were, but it wasn’t funny.

The more that he looked around, the more that it made his stomach turn.

He thought of his warehouse home, of how Jungwoo and Yukhei and Kun would probably be tucked away there now trying their best to keep the place warm, and he shook his head.

On the counter of the little window hatch that looked through to the dining space, there was a bowl. Inside there was a pair of car keys, and a folded wad of bills locked into a silver clip. His fingers itched towards the money.

_They wouldn’t even miss it_, he thought.

But he didn’t take it.

‘Alright, here,’ he held out the glass when he returned to the bedroom.

Taeyong sat up. His hair was mussed up and his face was red. Now that Doyoung was closer to him, he started to notice a tell-tale scent of heat on the air. His sense of smell wasn’t as good as the dog and cat hybrids that he knew - his greatest advantage was in his sense of hearing – but it was still far better than that of any human. And for any hybrid, the scent was distinctly _there_. It made his whole body shift on its axis, angling slightly towards Taeyong.

_Fuck. _

Sometimes Doyoung really hated being a hybrid.

Taeyong fidgeted at the closeness as Doyoung put the water down on the nightstand, like he couldn’t get comfortable, and then he reached out to grab Doyoung’s hand. ‘Will you stay?’ he said in a low, tension-ridden voice.

Their eyes met, and Doyoung saw that Taeyong’s pupils were blown wide. He could feel the heat of his skin, too, positively radiating. He was already way too far gone. ‘No,’ he gulped, praying that his own body wouldn’t start to give in to biology. ‘I should go.’

‘Please,’ whispered Taeyong, ‘please I need – I need – ’ he leant close until they were barely an inch apart and Doyoung recoiled as if he’d been burned.

‘Whoa!’ he pulled back, yanking his arm free.

He dodged back to the door rapidly. Once he was a few feet away, the spell that had overtaken Taeyong’s senses seemed to be broken.

‘Oh _God _I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay, you’re – you’re in heat and you’re not acting normal so just – just don’t,’ Doyoung exhaled.

‘I’m _sorry_. Even Ten doesn’t like being around me when I’m like this because I get all… you know…’ Taeyong groaned.

‘Yeah, I get it,’ Doyoung said quickly, not wanting to hear the gory details.

Taeyong was scarlet with embarrassment, and he lifted up his blankets and buried himself underneath them in what could only be shame. Even under the pile, Doyoung just about heard the tiny – ‘sorry.’

‘It’s fine. Really,’ said Doyoung, just wanting to get the hell out of there. ‘But I’m gonna go now.’

A whisper. ‘Okay.’

It was testament to how bad the heat combined with the embarrassment must have felt that Taeyong, clingy-I-want-to-be-friends-I-want-to-help-Taeyong, did not protest his departure a second time.

Doyoung didn’t like to dwell on his own last heat. It had happened when he’d forgotten to take his suppressants after skipping out of a huge group home when he was nineteen, and it had been so horrible that he’d been very careful not to have another one ever again. He’d ended up fucking a guy he barely knew because that was better than suffering it any longer.

He cleared his throat. ‘Well… bye.’

‘I’m sorry I came to the warehouse.’

The voice was so small that Doyoung barely heard it, but it registered before he got to the door. ‘Yeah, well,’ he sighed, ‘you were trying to help. In your own… dumb way.’

There was another muffled response, but Doyoung didn’t really hear it.

He left the room and pulled the door just to the catch, and then sighed, rubbing his forehead with his hands. This was not how he had expected this day to go at all.

On his way back out, he once again eyed the bowl with the cash in it.

But he didn’t take it.

*

‘So? What happened?’ grinned Yukhei as soon as Doyoung slipped back into the warehouse later in the afternoon.

Doyoung pulled off his beanie and threw it onto his makeshift bed. ‘I yelled, he got all stroppy, and then he got sick. I took him home.’

‘Sick how?’

‘Heat,’ Doyoung muttered.

‘Oh poor baby,’ Yukhei stuck his bottom lip out in an almost _caricature _of a sad face that Doyoung, from experience, knew to genuinely be honest.

‘He’s not a baby and he sure as hell isn’t poor,’ Doyoung said darkly. ‘And great job keeping watch, by the way. What would have happened if Taeyong had been some kind of law enforcement officer, huh? You just let him wander right up here like it was nothing.’

‘Please,’ Yukhei rolled his eyes, ‘he had fluffy white ears and a giant bag of food. Hardly threatening. I figured he’d got lost on his way home with takeout. Besides, _you’re_ the one who’s been getting to know him. Go on, spill.’

Doyoung closed his eyes and exhaled through tight teeth. ‘He’s a house-cat who doesn’t know where he’s not wanted. I bumped into him once and ever since he’s been like my fucking shadow.’

‘He’s cute. I think I scared him though.’

Jungwoo ran his fingers through Yukhei’s hair and kissed his cheek. ‘Well you are _very _intimidating, Xuxi.’

The three of them were sat around the grill, where Kun was reheating something. The _something _was in a pretty, flower-patterned ceramic dish, which meant that it was something that Taeyong had brought with him. On the air, Doyoung could smell onion and garlic and some sort of strong fish broth.

‘I’m not being funny, Doyoung, but you should invite him round more,’ said Yukhei, lifting noodles out of another pot.

‘I didn’t invite him,’ said Doyoung irritably.

‘Then _start_ inviting him. This shit is the best food I’ve ever eaten.’

Kun and Jungwoo both nodded their agreement. ‘He has a gift,’ said Kun. ‘Really.’

Doyoung flopped down beside them and investigated everything that they were heating. Then he muttered, ‘anything that _isn’t _from him that I can eat?’

‘Don’t be stubborn,’ ordered Jungwoo, passing him a bowl.

He would have protested more, but now that he thought of it, he couldn’t remember the last time that he had eaten something. In the morning, he had been ready to go for his normal walk, but he’d stayed behind to work on some extra reading with Jungwoo, and then between taking Taeyong home and making his way back across town a second time, he realised that he hadn’t eaten since the previous night.

‘Spicy tofu,’ said Kun as he nodded to the bowl. ‘I know you like it.’

Doyoung pulled a face, determined to _not_ like it, but he knew from the first mouthful that there was no point in trying to pretend.

‘_Damn_,’ he said aloud.

‘Good right?’ smirked Yukhei.

It was like an explosion of flavour. Kun’s cooking was brilliant, and Jungwoo’s wasn’t bad either, but this was… special. He tried to concentrate on each individual flavour, every spice, but it was all blended together into something new and magnificent and there was a slight burn that told him it was hot in just the right levels.

‘Okay, maybe I’ll invite him again,’ he laughed, though of course he had no intention of actually doing so.

There was a silence as they all ate.

This time of the day was usually a quiet one. Kun didn’t like them talking a lot during dinner because he said that it distracted them from eating and that their bodies wouldn’t feel full if they didn’t concentrate. That was what he _said_. Doyoung figured that he actually just wanted some peace and quiet.

Taeyong had made enough food to last them probably a couple of days, but as the afternoon drew into evening, they found that they were working their way through all of it.

Yukhei, like always, was the one to break the stalemate of silence. ‘So… you er… you like him? Taeyong?’

‘What?’ Doyoung’s head snapped up. ‘Of course not. What the hell would give you that impression?’

‘There’s such a thing as protesting too much, Doyoung,’ said Jungwoo with a sympathetic look.

‘And you did walk him home,’ shrugged Yukhei. ‘The grumpy Doyoung I know wouldn’t do that for just anyone.’

‘I don’t like him. In fact, I can’t stand him. He’s a spoiled, cossetted, naïve lap-cat.’

‘What’s so wrong with being a lap-cat?’ asked Kun in a quiet voice.

Doyoung looked over to him.

The two of them had… differing opinions, on a lot of things.

Kun, until he’d wound up here, had had a very different experience with humans. He’d loved his owner dearly, and his owner had loved him, or so Kun said. But the councillor had died, and his surviving family had not wanted a hybrid. They’d left him at a shelter, but Kun, just like Doyoung and Yukhei and Jungwoo, had chosen to take his chances elsewhere rather than live out his days somewhere like that.

Doyoung wondered whether to argue this again. They’d gone around and around in circles with it enough times before and he knew full well that they would never see eye to eye. But he couldn’t help himself. ‘Everything,’ he said flatly. ‘It’s demeaning. It tells humans that we’re happy to laze around and belong to them.’

‘The choices you make for yourself don’t have to be the ones that others make for their own lives,’ said Kun. ‘The fact that he’s happy in his home doesn’t make him naïve or spoiled.’

‘No, the fact that he’s naïve and spoiled makes him naïve and spoiled,’ Doyoung rolled his eyes. ‘He talks like his human is God’s gift, and trust me, _no _human is. And he thinks that bringing us a few dishes of food makes everything _better_, like he doesn’t go home afterwards to snuggle up to his human in his fancy apartment with his wide-screen TV and all his precious books and – ’

‘Doyoung,’ interrupted Jungwoo before his diatribe could deteriorate any further, ‘what humans have done to you, to us – it’s not his fault. Maybe thinking that he can cure all ills through cooking is a _little _misguided, but I think he really was just trying to help. He’s one of us, one of our kind, and he seems like a nice one. I think, at the very least, that your rage is better directed elsewhere.’

‘Yeah, well, you haven’t had to put up with him,’ he muttered petulantly. ‘He’s annoying.’

The silence returned after that, and Doyoung was grateful for it.

Before everyone was done with eating, Doyoung announced that he was going to bed, and he stalked over to his mattress. It was half-hidden by a crumbling wall, so he had an ounce of privacy but it wasn’t much. He flopped onto his side and glared moodily in the opposite direction. He didn’t even bother to get changed.

The creeping thoughts that crawled into his mind were so unpleasant that he cursed and rolled onto his back. He was starting to think about _Taeyong_. He wondered what he was doing, whether he was still curled up in bed, and whether the heat had got worse yet. For a second, he even found himself thinking about the ways that he might be dealing with it, and he shoved that thought so far to the back of his head that it might have emerged from the other side of his skull.

He wondered whether Taeyong was cuddling with the human.

He’d said that they didn’t fuck. Well, that was one thing to hold onto, he guessed.

Not that he cared anyway.

Did he care?

No.

No, he didn’t care.


	5. Chapter 5

If it was one thing that Taeyong hated more than anything, it was his heat.

It served no wider purpose for him, other than to ruin his life for a few days about four times a year. He liked being a hybrid sometimes, especially when he looked in the mirror and giggled at the way that his own ears twitched, but when he was in heat, he resented it more than anything.

‘You okay, darling?’ murmured Johnny, keeping his voice gentle.

Taeyong groaned and moaned and buried his face into his pillow. ‘No.’

Johnny sat down on the side of the bed and gave his shoulder a squeeze. Just the touch made Taeyong feel worse though. His skin was on fire, every sensation making it sting like he’d been pricked with a needle. ‘I made your favourite – hobakjuk.’ Johnny put down the bowl on the nightstand.

‘Thanks,’ Taeyong mumbled, though he really just wanted Johnny to go.

‘I have to go to work now. Do you want me to call Ten? Or Jae even, to keep an eye on you?’

Taeyong shook his head, or rather moved it slightly on the pillow. ‘No, I think I traumatised Ten last time.’

Johnny chuckled softly. ‘You want me to take the day off work?’

‘I think it’s better when I’m by myself,’ Taeyong whispered.

It was true. At least he could wallow in self-pity without the added threat of humiliation that way. He’d already embarrassed himself enough once, in front of Doyoung, two days earlier.

‘I know, I know,’ Johnny sighed. ‘Sometimes I wish that we could find you someone to… to help you out.’

Taeyong rolled onto his back with wide eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well you know… I hate seeing you suffer like this whenever you have your heat. And you keep talking about wanting to make new friends and I thought maybe you were hinting that you… y’know… might want another hybrid around.’

‘Like… like adopt one?’ Taeyong whispered. For a split second, he forgot his heat altogether and sat up. His head seemed clear, not cloudy, and he felt chilly with sudden nerves rather than overwarm.

‘If you’d like that then we can talk about it, once your heat is over,’ said Johnny. ‘You know all I want is for you to be happy, Tyongie. Whatever we need to do, I’ll try my best to make it happen.’

Taeyong bit his lip and looked down. ‘Okay. I’ll think about it.’

Johnny leant forwards and kissed his forehead. ‘I’ll see you after work. Call me if you need anything at all.’

Taeyong nodded. He really hated the fact that when Johnny went to work during his heats, he had to come home to no dinner on the table.

Once he was alone, he ate some of the rice porridge and then tucked himself deep down amongst his blankets and picked up his phone to play a game. Within a second, though, he was too hot, and he kicked the blankets off instead. That was the thing with heats – he swung like a pendulum from too hot to too cold and back to too hot again.

And he was thinking all about what Johnny had said.

Another hybrid.

He’d discussed the same thing with Ten not too far in the past, but he’d never considered the thought that it could become a reality.

Did he want another hybrid around?

_Yes_, a small voice said in his head. But then also _no_.

Did he like the idea of having someone around? Maybe. But a couple of visits to a shelter wasn’t enough time to pick someone to _live _with, to _be _with. And if he ended up not liking them then it would be the end of his serenity forever. Even worse, he had an image in his head of what would happen if Johnny liked the newcomer more than he liked _him_. What if _Johnny _ended up falling in love with the hybrid and Taeyong was left alone as the sad third wheel for the rest of his life, nothing but a hindrance to their happiness?

His stomach turned over.

No. Absolutely not. He couldn’t take that risk.

Did he like the idea of _a _hybrid being around? _Yes_. But it had to be a specific hybrid, one that he knew and that he was increasingly comfortable with and –

\- and it had to be Doyoung.

He couldn’t stop thinking it.

Ever since he’d tried to throw himself at him – _ugh_ – on the first day of his heat, Taeyong had not been able to get it out of his head.

The thought of having Doyoung around the apartment… well that didn’t frighten him in the way that bringing in any other new hybrid would.

He _knew _Doyoung, however much the bunny might not want to admit it.

The world had brought them together and the truth was…

Taeyong liked him.

He also really didn’t like him. Doyoung was rude and crass and pretty pig-headed.

But there was something about all that which was strangely appealing.

_It’s the heat talking, _he thought. Coming into contact with another hybrid when he was vulnerable was a recipe for disaster. When he’d had Ten round for an hour during his last heat, in the hope that his best friend could distract him for a while, he’d wound up with a crush on _him_. On _Ten_. And it hadn’t faded until at least a week later when he’d suddenly found himself wondering what the hell he’d been thinking.

Yes, it was definitely the heat talking.

He felt a twinge through his navel and he threw his phone away with a whine. He curled up into a foetal position as a whole wave wracked down his body. Thinking too much about Doyoung in this state had nudged the sensations from discomfort to arousal and that was _worse_.

He kicked his pyjama pants off, and then his turtle patterned tee, to try to cool down, but it didn’t help.

He felt sticky with sweat and that was the final straw. Johnny gave him clean sheets twice a day during his heat but he didn’t want to ruin these ones before the evening. He’d go to shower instead.

Taeyong rolled out of bed and hobbled his way to the bathroom.

Once there, he toyed around with the temperature on the shower for a while. He didn’t want it hot but even in his heat he couldn’t stand the shock of a cold shower either. Only when he had managed to get it to a midway sort-of-warm, did he wriggle out of his briefs and climb under the water.

He kept it at low pressure because his skin was still on fire with sensation, and turned so that it could channel the line down his spine to his tail like a massage. His eyes fell closed and he sighed. This was better, at least, than laying sweaty in bed.

After a moment, he allowed his hand to brush down over his aching arousal and he let out a low moan.

This part of heat was as tiresome and pedestrian as the rest of it. He didn’t enjoy having to jerk off five times a day just to feel sane again. It wasn’t fun. But it brought some kind of relief.

He shifted back until the water was running down the back of his neck in soothing lines, and then he wrapped his hand around his cock properly and tried to let himself settle into the sensation. His heat-ridden body reacted so fervently that his legs started to shake at the knee and he had to prop himself up with one hand against the tiles.

The friction as he jerked himself was uncomfortable from the water and he thought to reach around for something smoother like he usually did but then as he thumbed once over his reddening head, that face swam into his vision again.

Would Doyoung’s hands be rough?

Surely.

He slowed down his pace for a second and almost choked at the thought.

Suddenly, it didn’t feel so bad. It didn’t feel so _pedestrian_.

He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on that image. He pictured Doyoung pressing up behind him and taking his erection into _his _hand instead and jerking him with rough strokes as his kissed over his neck – no, _bit _over his neck. Taeyong thought that Doyoung would be rough. That was how he liked to imagine it.

He rolled his head to the side, here in the moment, to expose the line of his throat like Doyoung was really there, leaving a trail of purple where he’d punish the skin.

‘Ah – _ah - _’ he gasped aloud, content in being alone in the apartment where he could not be overheard. The moans were embarrassing in pitch and he imagined how Doyoung would probably laugh at them, tease him about them. He thought of how it would sound to hear Doyoung call him all of the names that he’d called him before, only this time growled in his ear as he got him off, and Taeyong came so fast over his hand that he let out a cry that could have been halfway towards a name.

‘Mm,’ he hummed his way through the aftershock of heat as he bit his lower lip hard.

He panted as he opened his eyes and turned the shower a little colder. The pain in his navel had subsided, and already his skin felt less sensitive.

And for once, it had not felt like a chore.

Not at _all. _

Taeyong rested his forehead against the cool tiles and worked to steady his breathing.

He’d never really done that before, not fantasised about one specific person.

When he emerged from the shower, everything still felt arduous. He had to change the sheets but he felt so _tired_. Johnny had left out two more dishes of food on the kitchen counter ready for him, but the thought of even just heating something made his body ache and he ended up collapsing down onto the couch wrapped in a blanket. He switched on the TV and flitted between the channels, but then he switched to streaming because when he was feeling like this he needed at least twelve hours of the same thing.

He was distracted, though, when it swam into his mind once more that Doyoung had been here. _Here_. In his apartment.

That was a big step.

Doyoung had seen his stuff. Taeyong half sat up nervously, glancing around the room and praying that there was nothing embarrassing lying around. There were some framed photos of him with Johnny that he knew Doyoung probably would have glared at, and a giant cat plushie in the corner of the dining room that Johnny had won him in an arcade game.

Was there anything super stupid in his bedroom? He didn’t think so. He had a tendency to hoard, especially when he ended up nesting multiple times a year, so he had a lot of the stuff still from when he was a kitten, but nothing mega embarrassing he hoped. Anyway, Doyoung had probably been more distracted by Taeyong launching himself at him for a kiss or worse.

He groaned aloud in shame again.

He wanted to go to the warehouse as soon as his heat was done to apologise, but at the same time he knew that Doyoung would lose it if he went around there again.

A part of him was sure that he’d be better off forgetting about him altogether.

But he couldn’t.

*

Taeyong breathed in slowly as he boxed up the jajangmyeon that he’d made and sealed it tightly. He had prepared three different dishes, all of which he hoped would impress Doyoung.

It was a week since he had endured his heat, and he was now faced with one undeniable fact:

His crush was not going away.

He’d hoped that once his body calmed down and he got some time to himself, he’d stop obsessing over his stranger-not-stranger at last.

He’d had no such luck.

So, he was going to throw caution to the wind, _again_. Ten had told him that falling in love didn’t happen on day one, that it took time, and Taeyong guessed that making friends was the same thing. He just needed to show Doyoung that he was the sort of person he wanted to have around, and if it was one thing that Taeyong knew he could do, it was cook.

_The way to a man’s heart…_

He smiled happily to himself and loaded the ready-meals into a bag, and then he set about collecting up the ingredients he’d bought at the market.

The first time that Doyoung had crashed into his life, he’d been fleeing with rudimentary groceries from the cheap store in the mall, and Taeyong wasn’t a _snob _per-se, but he was… well he was probably a snob. When it came to food, he was a snob. He liked fancy brands and the expensive organic place and actually he didn’t _like _the thought of Doyoung living off the basics.

So he’d been shopping for him.

He hummed as he crammed mirin and oil and gochujang and anchovy sauce and a whole host of fresh vegetables into one of his recycled shopping bags. Then, worried that Doyoung might not know what to do with all of them, he hurriedly lifted out his folder of loose recipes and searched for some that Doyoung might like. It was difficult, because he didn’t know what sort of cooking facilities they had in the warehouse.

He wondered who else was there with him.

There was the dog hybrid that he’d seen, though the more he thought about him, the more Taeyong was inclined to think of him as more of a puppy, because he had that kind of energy.

But there were others too. Ten’s friend said that there was a _group_ of hybrids living in the warehouse.

He hoped they were friendly.

Once he’d finished all of his bags, he went to get changed and check how he looked in the mirror. It was the first time he’d really concentrated on his _appearance_ before going to see Doyoung.

He fluffed up his ears and his tail as best he could and then smoothed them back down again. He didn’t know which way Doyoung would like. Maybe he shouldn’t look too sleek because Doyoung already thought he was spoiled, but then again maybe if he was too fluffy Doyoung would roll his eyes at him for being all cutesy.

He sighed, wishing that he could ask Ten for advice.

But he still hadn’t even told him about visiting the warehouse the first time.

As far as his best friend knew, he’d forgotten all about Doyoung.

He eventually picked out a pair of simple jeans and an oversized grey sweater with minimal print on it – just a little sun and moon embroidered over the heart in glittering thread.

It was cool outside, but definitely not winter anymore. Taeyong felt the cold, so he still picked out a coat.

Then, it was on with his boots and out of the door with a bounding confidence. He was used, now, to going out by himself. That was one hurdle he had overcome, proudly and securely.

He was halfway down the hall when he jumped.

Jaehyun had turned the corner. ‘Tyongie,’ he smiled, ‘how are you?’

‘I’m good,’ Taeyong squeaked, feeling thoroughly caught in the act.

Jaehyun worked all sorts of hours, because he was a doctor at the emergency room, so it wasn’t unusual to find him wandering back into the building at this time, but Taeyong had never been caught on his way somewhere that he shouldn’t be going. How could he be? He never _went_ somewhere he shouldn’t be going.

Except to see Doyoung.

‘You’re going out?’ Jaehyun yawned and ran a hand through his hair. He looked tired.

‘Oh… um… yeah.’

‘With your shopping?’ Jaehyun was smiling – it wasn’t an interrogation, but the guilty conscience weighing on Taeyong’s shoulders made it feel like one.

Technically he wasn’t _banned _from visiting Doyoung or anything. Johnny had never given him any rules about where he could and couldn’t go, only that he always wore his collar. Taeyong wasn’t doing anything _wrong _meeting a sort-of-not-really friend.

Except it felt like every kind of wrongdoing purely by omission.

He’d kept it from Johnny.

He’d kept it from Ten.

Now he was keeping it from Jaehyun.

‘Um… I’m going to see a friend,’ he said, which wasn’t officially a lie.

Jaehyun looked confused for a moment, but then he rubbed his eyes. ‘Right, sure. Sorry, I’m super tired. You want to say hi to Ten?’

‘Oh, er… er… no,’ Taeyong said quickly. ‘You go home and have a nice afternoon together. I don’t wanna intrude.’ He knew that Ten would not be fooled if he saw him with a bag of supplies like this.

‘Well have fun. Don’t come home too late,’ he added with a smile.

‘Sure sure!’ Taeyong darted past him with an elaborate wave and only relaxed when he was in the elevator. ‘Phew.’

From then on, his journey was easier. He skipped his way down the street towards the town, and waved to a couple of people that he’d started to see quite often. One of them, a human with a chip on his shoulder about something or other, looked down moodily, but the other, a cheerful-looking deer hybrid, gave him a small wave back.

Maybe they could become friends some time.

Taeyong was feeling more confident in that, now, too.

He was definitely a different person to who he had been back before he’d started going out by himself. Some of the anxiety was gone, and he was less scared of the outside world than before. He was better at talking to strangers and going to new places and he’d even started to take public transport by himself too.

He wondered whether perhaps Doyoung would like him more like that.

He wasn’t _just_ a pampered house-kitty like Doyoung thought he was, and he was determined to show him.

When he slipped down the side street to the warehouse, he found the area quite deserted, and he made his way over to the shutter with a small amount more nerves than he’d been feeling a minute ago.

He was ready for Doyoung to have a go at him, but he’d prepared a list of responses.

And this time he wouldn’t be interrupted by his stupid heat.

He peered around, wondering how to make his presence known. Should he knock?

_Okay_.

He took a deep, deep breath, and then raised his hand to tap on the shutter, but just as he did so, it was the drawn up and he found himself face to face with the puppy hybrid that he’d met before, and a stranger – a cat hybrid, like himself, with tortoiseshell ears and a face that was harried with worry.

‘We saw you coming,’ announced the dog hybrid.

‘I – I’m here to see Doyoung,’ he said with a shy smile. ‘I brought food again.’ He held up the bags, but his smile faltered when he saw the look they exchanged. ‘What is it?’ he mumbled.

‘Doyoung isn’t here,’ said the cat in a quiet voice. ‘I’m Jungwoo, by the way. This is Yukhei.’

‘Oh, okay! Hi!’ he said brightly. He didn’t mind waiting. ‘Do you know when he’ll be back?’

Jungwoo looked away awkwardly. ‘They picked him up downtown yesterday.’

‘Downtown? Who’s they?’ asked Taeyong in surprise.

‘The people who pick up hybrids who aren’t supposed to be hanging around, love,’ he sighed. ‘You shouldn’t be here. If they were following Doyoung then they might know about this place and you don’t want to be involved with us. We might not even be staying.’

Taeyong stared at them. His heart was pounding. ‘But – but – but where would they take him?’ he stammered.

They exchanged another look. ‘There’s nothing you can do, Taeyong. Doyoung will take care of himself, he’ll figure something out. He always does.’

‘I have to help,’ said Taeyong. He felt sick. ‘I – I have to. The world wanted me to help him. Oh _shit_.’

‘You’re a hybrid, Taeyong, just like us. You can’t waltz into a police station and pick him up. If it was possible, we would have done it already. You’ll just get yourself into trouble too.’

‘Then I’ll - ’ Taeyong thought around frantically. ‘Then I’ll get Johnny to do it!’

‘Who’s - ’ began Yukhei.

Jungwoo interrupted. ‘If you’re talking about your human then trust me, Doyoung will resent you all the more for it. He’ll be furious.’

Taeyong chewed his lip, if only to keep it still because it was starting to wobble.

_No_.

He wouldn’t allow this to happen.

‘B-but Doyoung’s hasn’t done anything wrong,’ he said, swallowing, ‘he just needs someone to explain that all this is a misunderstanding.’

Jungwoo sighed again. ‘Doyoung was right. You _are _naïve.’

At that, Taeyong straightened up.

He was _sick _of people telling him that.

‘Well I’m going to help Doyoung,’ he snapped. ‘Even if no one else will. Tell me where he is. Please.’

He was already on the phone to Johnny before he was out of the vicinity of the warehouse, rubbing his eyes in turn with the hand still holding his supplies because he was starting to feel teary.

It wasn’t _fair._

He wouldn’t allow his not-friend to be snatched away from him, not when he’d spent so long plucking up the courage to go to see him again. _Not _when he’d spent a whole day cooking for him. _Not _when he was the one person, however strange it might be, that he could imagine including in an unusual sort of set-up for his home in the future.

And he _knew _that Jungwoo and Yukhei were right, that Doyoung would be _furious _if he got Johnny involved, but he couldn’t help himself. The small rational corner of his brain was telling him to discuss this with Ten first, but he’d already typed the number. Johnny was his protector, he’d _always _taken care of him, and in times of strife his was the only counsel that he wanted.

He needed Johnny.

For himself, as much as Doyoung.

‘Johnny?’ he started as soon as Johnny answered on the second ring.

Johnny had a special ringtone just for him, so he would know in a second that it was important.

‘Taeyongie? Are you okay?’ he sounded worried.

Taeyong sniffed. ‘Will you come home early today?’ he whispered. ‘I really need you.’

‘What’s wrong? What’s happened?’ Taeyong actually _heard _him stand up with a shuffling of whatever was on his desk.

‘It’s – it’s a long story. Please just come home. I really really need you.’

‘I’m on my way,’ said Johnny, voice riddled with anxiety.

Taeyong only just beat him home, by around five minutes, because the walk was much slower than Johnny’s car. He’d just dropped down onto Johnny’s favourite armchair, breath coming fast as he started to panic, when the door opened again and he slipped inside.

‘Yongie, what’s going on?’ Johnny said in a strained voice. He crouched down in front of him and took his hands onto his knees. ‘Talk to me.’

Taeyong didn’t know where to start.

‘Tyongie please, you’re scaring me.’

Guilt washing over him again, Taeyong took a shuddery breath. ‘Johnny I kept a secret,’ he blurted out.

He saw Johnny’s neck bob as he swallowed, but then he nodded. ‘Okay. Tell me. You’re not in trouble.’

The concern on his face combined with the thumb rubbing gently over his knuckles made Taeyong give in with zero protest. He launched into an explanation, starting at the very beginning when he had bumped into Doyoung. This time, he didn’t leave out details. He told Johnny the parts that he hadn’t shared when they’d met Doyoung the second time on the way to the restaurant. He told him about how Doyoung was a hybrid without a collar running from the security guards, and how he’d lied to them himself when they’d questioned him.

This, Johnny chastised him for, but his heart didn’t seem to be in it.

‘And then after we met him that time, when I was with you, I didn’t… well I didn’t mention him again.’

‘Right,’ Johnny sighed.

‘But the truth is that I bumped into him again. When I was with Ten.’

‘Ten’s met him?’

Taeyong nodded, ashamed. ‘Only that one time. But I… well…’

‘Tell me,’ said Johnny, his voice firm.

He told him about the warehouse, though the one thing he did remember to do was keep the location vague. He felt that he owed that to the others who lived there, however much he might trust Johnny himself. And then he got to the part that he had been dreading.

Johnny stared at him. ‘You went into heat on the _street_?’

‘I _forgot_,’ Taeyong cried. ‘I was so busy with all the birthdays and the cooking I just… I didn’t notice the symptoms.’

‘Sweetheart, _anything _could have happened.’ Johnny looked horrified. ‘You should have told me. Right away. That day. God, you should have called me to pick you up.’

‘Doyoung walked me home,’ he mumbled in a tiny voice.

Johnny sat back on his heels and kneaded his forehead.

‘I’m sorry, Johnny,’ he whispered. ‘It’s not like I wanted to deceive you I just… I didn’t know if you’d be happy with me hanging around with a stray and the first three times weren’t even on _purpose_, it was an accident!’

‘But going to the warehouse wasn’t an accident.’

‘No,’ Taeyong picked at his nails but Johnny pulled his hands gently apart to stop him. ‘And I went again today.’

‘Tae_yong - _’ Johnny groaned.

‘You said I wasn’t in trouble!’

‘Please tell me that you at least let Ten know where you were going.’

Taeyong couldn’t look up because his face was so awash with shame.

‘Taeyong,’ Johnny said again, and he leant down further so that Taeyong couldn’t help but look at him. ‘Taeyong, you need to tell Ten when you’re doing something that you can’t tell me, do you understand? Always. I know… I know maybe sometimes there will be things you won’t tell me and I wish you’d feel secure enough to tell me _everything_ but if you don’t, then you _need _to tell Ten, okay? _Someone _needs to know where you are, even if it isn’t me, in case there’s an emergency.’

‘Okay,’ he whispered.

‘What would have happened if you’d run into trouble, huh? No one would have known where you were. We’d all have been frantic when you didn’t come home. Promise me, _promise me Taeyong - _’

Taeyong looked up properly at the stern voice and nodded.

‘Promise me that the next time you go somewhere without telling me, you’ll _tell Ten_.’

‘I promise.’

Johnny exhaled slowly. ‘Okay. Now tell me what’s happened.’

‘They picked him up off the street, Johnny,’ he said, tears filling his eyes again. ‘They’re going to throw him back into one of those places like where Ten was, or _worse_.’

Johnny narrowed his eyes but it was in stress rather than anger, like he was trying to get his head around everything that Taeyong was saying. ‘Tyongie, you know that the reason that they keep hybrids off the street is because it’s dangerous out there, right?’

‘No, no that’s _not _why!’ said Taeyong, and he didn’t want to say it all to Johnny but the words just kept coming. ‘It’s because they want to keep us locked up where we can’t cause trouble. Those places are _horrible_. You know Ten still has nightmares, right? Jaehyun must have told you that.’

Johnny looked taken aback.

Taeyong had never stood up to him about anything like that before. He’d never needed to.

‘And I’ve spent a long time in this apartment where it’s nice and warm and safe but I know what goes on outside too. I’m not naïve. Ten’s told me and since I’ve been going out I’ve been learning more about what it means to be… be like me. A hybrid. And I’ve seen how people like Doyoung live.’

There was a moment of quiet.

Johnny seemed unsure of what to say. ‘What… what is it that you want me to do, Tae?’

‘Johnny please just help him,’ he whispered, ‘please don’t let them lock him up or anything. I’d go and try to help myself but I’m a hybrid, they won’t listen to me. I’m nothing to them. But they’ll listen to you. Because you’re a human.’

Johnny met his eyes. ‘I’ve always wanted to keep you away from all that stuff. I never wanted you to be made to feel like you’re… worth any less, because of who you are.’

Taeyong wiped the last stray tear from his eye and sat up properly. ‘I’m proud to be a hybrid. I am. And I’m not scared of the world out there because I know I’ll always have you to keep me safe. But Doyoung doesn’t have anyone, Johnny. He didn’t get lucky like I did. And maybe I’m crazy but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we kept running into each other again and again. I think I’m supposed to help him. But I need you to help _me _to help him. Please.’

‘I don’t know what I’ll be about to do, Tyongie. If he’s broken the law then – ’

‘Ten always says that the system is overflowing because no one wants hybrids anymore. He says that they’re happy to offload us to anyone they can. _Please_. I know if you talk to them then they’ll let him go.’

Johnny nodded slowly, and then lifted Taeyong’s hands to press a kiss to his knuckles. ‘Okay. If you want me to go to the station and talk to them then I’ll go. But I can’t promise anything.’

‘Just try.’

‘You really like him?’ murmured Johnny.

‘No,’ Taeyong said quickly. ‘Actually I think he’s pretty rude.’

Johnny frowned.

‘But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve help. And… well… maybe I like him a little.’

‘Is this why you’ve been changing the subject whenever I mention bringing another hybrid into the family?’

‘Maybe…’ he mumbled.

Johnny brushed the hair back from Taeyong’s face and stroked for a second over the soft silvery white ears. ‘Well I’m glad you’ve made a new friend.’

‘Oh he’s not my friend. He hates me. He calls me a spoiled princess.’

Johnny sighed but he climbed to his feet and reached back around for his car keys. ‘Remind me again why we’re helping?’


	6. Chapter 6

Doyoung kicked out with a glare that the wall didn’t really deserve, but he was the one that ended up recoiling, clutching his foot as pain shot up to his ankle. Lashing out didn’t make him feel any better. If anything, it made him feel worse.

He was stuck in one room, a holding room.

Holding _cell _more like.

In the morning, they would transfer him somewhere new, out of the city. Technically, hybrids couldn’t be sent to prison, but the sorts of places that people like him found themselves in might as well have been detention centres. Prisons in all but name. Still, they claimed it was all for his _own good_. 

There was very little in the room, except for a small bed with white metal rails and a nightstand on which they’d put the food he was allowed to eat.

_Hah_.

He hadn’t touched any of it.

For all he knew, they’d probably drugged it.

‘Fucking hell,’ he muttered. He rested his shoulder against the wall and let his head fall there too, the varnish on the brick cold on his temple. He’d really fucked it this time.

All of the times that he’d complained about the warehouse and the situation on the street over the last few months made him want to laugh now. How lucky he’d been, to have somewhere free, somewhere with good people. Kun and Jungwoo and Yukhei. He groaned again, turning to face the wall instead and knocking his forehead lightly to the surface.

At least he’d been picked up on the street, and not where the authorities would find them too. He hoped they would now move, though. He couldn’t be sure how long the officers had been following him for.

He looked up at the quick courtesy knock and then the door opened only a split second later.

As if the day could get any worse.

‘You… you are _not - _’ he started, but he couldn’t quite think of what to say.

The man in the suit with the lanyard who was handling Doyoung’s _case _was stood a little to the side, and it was Taeyong framed in the doorway.

‘You are _not _here,’ he finished.

He felt strange.

On the one hand, he wanted to snap, not for the first time at Taeyong. He wanted to lament the fact that even here of all places he could not escape him. He wanted to groan or shout or tell him to leave him the fuck alone once and for all.

But at the same time, there was a surge in his navel of something like relief.

It was nice to see a familiar face, one more time before they dragged him from the city.

‘Look, before you have a go at me - ’ Taeyong began, looking over his shoulder until Doyoung’s sentinel disgruntledly closed the door and gave the two of them some privacy. ‘I’m here to help.’

‘How did you even know where I was?’

‘Jungwoo and Yukhei.’

Doyoung ran his hands through his hair and groaned. They’d never been as good as him at keeping their mouths shut. Then, his thoughts figured themselves out and he found himself even more irate than before. ‘So you went to the warehouse again?’

‘_No,_ I – well yes. I did. I brought some food to thank you for taking me home that day.’

It was a pathetic excuse.

Doyoung clenched his jaw. ‘Am I going to be stuck with you forever?’

‘First of all, I’ve only come to see you _twice_. And secondly, forever isn’t important at this very second,’ hissed Taeyong. ‘You need to be thinking about right now. And right now I’m here to help.’

There was a moment where Taeyong looked him up and down, with a quick glance like he didn’t want him to notice, and Doyoung narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like being looked at like that. It computed a second later, and he turned half away, self-conscious.

They’d taken his beanie away.

And Taeyong had never seen him like this before.

His fingers jumped involuntarily to his hair and he smoothed down his ears, though he was lop-eared anyway, a relief because they rested close to his head. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of them. Doyoung was proud of what he was: _hybrid_. It just so happened that his particular ears weren’t… well he wasn’t exactly intimidating.

A part of him had always believed that he should have been born a panther hybrid, or a wolf.

‘You don’t have to be shy,’ said Taeyong, in that softly bright voice that characterised him.

‘Why did they let you in here?’ Doyoung rounded back on him.

‘We came to pick you up,’ he said quietly.

Doyoung stared at him, forehead creased, and then he took a step back. ‘Oh hell no. You _didn’t_.’

Taeyong put his hands up defensively and the words stumbled out. ‘They never would have let you go without a human and - ’

‘You lied to me!’

‘I didn’t, I - ’

‘You swore to me that you wouldn’t bring him near me!’

‘No, _no_,’ said Taeyong shakily. ‘I promised that I would never take him to the warehouse. And I didn’t. I never broke my promise.’

A human. A fucking human. Taeyong had brought one of them to his rescue.

‘Johnny’s lied for you!’ said Taeyong, and he tilted his chin up in defiance. ‘He did everything I asked him to do. He’s told them that you’re with us now and that we were – _he _was – going to adopt you even before and that you had already come to live with us. I know you hate them all but at least respect what he’s been willing to do for you.’

‘He’s not doing it for me,’ spat Doyoung, ‘he’s doing it for you.’

‘Who cares who he’s doing it for!’ Taeyong took a step forwards and he reached for Doyoung’s hands, which he pulled away with all the speed of a whip. ‘They’re going to take you out to a home that you won’t be able to get away from, Doyoung. They’ll all but lock you up. Come with us instead and at least you’ll be free.’

He gave a derisive laugh. ‘Free? There’s nothing free about being owned.’

‘Well at least I can walk around the city when I want, go where I want, do what I want,’ pressed Taeyong. ‘You won’t be able to do any of that where they’ll take you.’

‘I’ll run away,’ he shrugged, ‘I’ll escape. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.’

‘Then run away from _ours_. That’ll be easier.’

Doyoung breathed in slowly, trying to steady his breathing. There was, somewhere buried amongst Taeyong’s babbling, an inkling of sense in those words.

Taeyong obviously noticed that he’d latched onto that, because he carried on. ‘You’ve been to our apartment! You know it’s not far from your home! You could – you could still get to the city in minutes. Isn’t that better?’

Doyoung’s eyes fell closed as he tried to think. His words came out in a whisper. ‘Why? Why are you still doing all this for me? Why are you so determined to insert yourself into my life?’

‘No reason,’ said Taeyong with a flash of shyness across his face. ‘I mean Johnny’s always taught me to help other people when they need it. And you need help. Even if you won’t admit it. And Johnny always says that sometimes you have to help your friends even if they might hate you for it.’

‘I’m not your friend,’ he groaned.

‘Well we _could_ be friends. Everything keeps coming together for us to meet over and over, so we’re obviously supposed to be something. Please let me help. Let us help.’

Doyoung thought of where he was, and then he thought of where he could be. He stared at Taeyong, trying to contemplate what his reality would look like if he walked out of the door now compared to if he stayed in this room. He tried, above all, to push all thoughts of Johnny to the back of his mind, and concentrate on himself. The human was irrelevant. Even Taeyong was irrelevant. He needed to think of his own plans.

‘Fine,’ he said.

A radiant smile found home on Taeyong’s face. ‘You’ll come with us?’

He gritted his teeth. ‘For now.’ He went to walk over, but then he saw that Taeyong was shuffling his feet. ‘What?’

‘There’s one more thing,’ Taeyong mumbled.

‘_What_?’ he said again warily.

‘You’ll have to wear this,’ he held out something that Doyoung recognised in a second.

‘No,’ he turned on his heel and stalking back to the other side of the room. ‘No, deal’s off. I’d rather die.’

‘It’ll be for twenty minutes! _Please_, Doyoung,’ he said and it really did sound like pleading. ‘It’s just til we get out of here and get home. I don’t even wear one in the apartment! But they won’t let you out unless they believe that you’re with Johnny now and that means wearing this.’

He looked at the collar in his hand with a look of abject disgust. ‘No.’

‘I even picked you out a plain one! It’s one of mine. You won’t have to wear it again. _Please_, it won’t kill you to put it on for ten minutes.’

Doyoung exhaled, seething through his teeth, and thought back to his decision a moment ago. He tried to focus on that again, on his plans, on the future. _This is better than where they’ll take me_, he thought. His stomach churned as he snatched the collar from Taeyong’s hand, making sure to wear an expression of revulsion.

Taeyong’s shoulders relaxed. ‘You want me to buckle it for you?’

‘No.’

He lifted the thing to his neck, and then lowered it again. He couldn’t do it.

_Undercover_. _Think of it as going undercover_.

Yes, that was it. He was the one using the human, using Taeyong, not the other way around. They would get him out of here, and then he could do what he wanted. _He _was the one with the control. He just had to let them _think _they were in charge.

He fixed the collar in place, fingers fumbling the catch. It really was plain, just black and leather with a simple silver buckle. At least it wasn’t too humiliating. He just had to make sure not to look in a mirror.

Taeyong gave him a small smile.

‘What?’ Doyoung said bitterly, like that was the only word in his vocabulary.

‘Nothing.’

He stalked over and stood at his side. ‘Well?’

‘Just play along,’ said Taeyong.

It was amongst the longest passages of time in Doyoung’s life, but he did as he was told (much as he resented that). He sat in a room with his case worker and Taeyong and his human, and he listened to them drone on about this and that.

‘We were worried when we heard he’d been picked up,’ said Johnny with a false smile, and he rested a hand on Doyoung’s shoulder.

Doyoung nudged it off as quickly as he could, staring at a scratched pattern on the desk.

‘Are you listening, Dongyoung?’

He looked up at his name, and nodded, though he had not been paying much attention. Human talk sounded like a constant drone to his ears. In his experience, they spent an awful lot of time blethering about nothing.

‘I’ll be round to check up on you next week,’ said his case worker. Mr Choi. ‘And then the first Thursday of every month after that.’

‘Fine.’

‘This is a lifeline, Dongyoung. None of us want to see you in a Last Stop shelter. Mr Seo is very good to invite you to join him and Taeyong.’

He had to bite down hard on the insides of his cheeks to stop himself saying something he would regret. ‘Right.’

Luckily, Mr Choi turned back Johnny after that. ‘You really must get him registered to your address as soon as possible. Be careful not to let him out without a collar again, too.’

‘Our mistake,’ said Johnny. ‘I’m sorry. He’s not used to wearing one yet.’

Doyoung rolled his head back to stare at the ceiling.

In that moment, he would rather have been anywhere else in the world than listening to this.

But he bit his tongue.

‘You can stay in our spare room,’ whispered Taeyong excitedly when Johnny went to sign some papers with his case worker. ‘The bed is really comfy and - ’

‘I’m not staying.’

Taeyong swallowed and his ears drooped a little. Doyoung had noticed over the previous occasions when they had met that Taeyong’s feelings were generally exposed by his ears. When he was happy or talking about something that excited him, they stood upright. When he was inquisitive or listening, they twitched around in interest. When he was scared or nervous or upset, they looked like this.

He’d clearly never been taught how to mask his emotions.

‘At least stay the week,’ he said. ‘Mr Choi is coming to visit next Thursday and if you’re already gone then you’ll get into all _sorts _of trouble.’

Doyoung ignored him.

He had no intention of staying the night, let alone the week.

*

‘This is your bed!’ announced Taeyong. Apparently, he hadn’t taken Doyoung’s words to heart earlier.

Doyoung looked around the room.

It was not his first time in the apartment, but it was his first time in this room.

Taeyong was the one showing him around, because during the entire time at the station, and the car ride home, and the journey in the elevator and down the corridor, Doyoung had not exchanged a single word with Johnny. He had no intention of _ever_ exchanging a single word with Johnny, not beyond the monosyllabic ones he’d shared when they’d first met in the street. In fact, he would be glad if he reached the end of his days without ever having spoken to a human with whom communication was not an absolute necessity.

‘I’m sorry, there’s some of my old stuff in here,’ mumbled Taeyong, like Doyoung’s sour face was a result of the room and not the living situation itself. ‘I’ll move it.’

‘It’s fine,’ said Doyoung. He felt slightly guilty.

Taeyong was already bustling around the boxes though. They were stacked up in corners of the room, a couple of them overflowing with clothes. ‘I’ll get you some blankets. I know it’s not technically winter anymore but I think it’s still quite chilly. Don’t you?’

‘Mm.’

There was an awkward silence.

It was Doyoung, in fact, who broke it.

‘Taeyong?’

‘Yes!’

‘Yukhei and Jungwoo and Kun need to know that I’m okay.’

‘Oh,’ nodded Taeyong. ‘Oh of course. Well we could go and see them tomorrow!’

‘_I’ll_ go and see them.’

‘I’m not sure you should go out by yourself _right _away,’ Taeyong said nervously, ‘if someone sees you alone again they might think you’ve run away and then they’ll pick you up again.’

‘Right. Fine,’ Doyoung sighed. ‘We’ll go.’

That was a lie. He was leaving, tonight, and he’d make sure to tell Yukhei and Jungwoo and Kun that they all needed to find a new place together where they wouldn’t keep running into Taeyong and co again.

‘These are your towels. The shower has a steam setting and it’s amazing so you should try that. I’ll make dinner although it’s getting quite late now so I’m not sure _what _but I’ll think of something.’

‘Okay. Can I… be by myself for a bit?’

Taeyong looked at him with wide eyes. His eyes were always wide. Doyoung had never seen anyone who looked quite like him. The dark, huge irises gave him a look of innocence that he found difficult to hate. ‘Of course,’ he said softly.

When Doyoung was alone, he sat down on the bed and looked around again.

The walls were a neutral off-white, though he remembered that Taeyong’s were pink as cupcake frosting. He wondered how it would feel to put his stamp on a room, dress it up the way he would like it. Doyoung had never had a room of his own. When he’d been fostered out the first time, he’d shared with three other people. The second time, he’d been in a bunk bed with one other. The third time, he’d been in a long dormitory partitioned only by small screens, and there had been at least fifteen hybrids in that one room. Then, when he’d been taken to a Halfway shelter, he’d been crammed into one small space with five of his kind.

He tried to consider what colour he would paint the walls.

Blue.

It wasn’t the first time that he’d had these kinds of thoughts. Sometimes, he imagined what it would be like if he was allowed to work like a human and make his own way in life. He would buy his first apartment and fill it with things that no one could take away from him, things that _belonged _to him.

That would never happen.

Not in his lifetime, he was sure.

If anything, the treatment of hybrids seemed to be getting worse.

A room, though?

Maybe he could have a room.

Not this one of course. No way. He had no intention of staying here.

He closed his eyes. The bed was soft, the mattress foamy rather than sprung. Even though it had only been a day, he felt like it had been a year since he had last slept. A part of him did not want to sleep – he needed to stay awake, stay alert. But the other side of him, perhaps the more rational side, knew that this was probably the safest that he had ever been.

_Safe._

The police wouldn’t be after him. There would be no risk of robbery or attack. No. Nothing. Just _Johnny-the-big-friendly-human _and an overzealous cat with boundary issues on the other side of the wall. What was there to stay alert for? The danger of falling in love with a soft bed and a steam shower?

He did want to shower.

It had been a long time since he had last had a proper, hot shower.

There was plenty of time to take advantage of the facilities, and of Taeyong’s cooking. He could leave in the dead of night fed and watered and clean. That was more than he usually had on the day of escape.

He closed his eyes and ran his fingertips over the soft comforter on the bed.

There was a discernible scent on the air of cooking, like Taeyong had just turned on the heat under whatever he had been preparing. Doyoung couldn’t identify it, but somewhere in amongst the blend there were strong notes of spice. Eyes still closed, he inhaled deeply and laid down on his side.

It was not a conscious decision, but rather like his body gave out on him in a fit of exhaustion.

He felt as though he had been running for a very long time.


	7. Chapter 7

Doyoung jerked awake, pulled from the midst of a dream that could have been good or bad – he did not recall. For a second, he could not remember where he was, and he flinched, shoving away a heavy weight that looked grey in the darkness and searching around for light. Only when his eyes adjusted to the light, did he recognise the small, square room with its plain walls and soft bed. The memories washed back over him, and his hands jumped frantically to his throat, unbuckling the black collar there and throwing it across the room. It struck the wall and fell to the floor.

Breath still in frantic gasps, he rubbed his fingers over the red skin. It was unused to such intrusion.

Evening or night must have fallen, but it was difficult to tell because someone had closed the blinds. As he looked down, he realised that someone must have thrown the comforter over him. _All bets on Taeyong_.

How long had he been asleep for?

His body felt stiff, perhaps unprepared for such a squashy bed, and there was a gnawing hunger in his stomach.

_I need to leave._

The thought was prominent in his mind. He’d fallen asleep with no such intention, and he could not risk falling victim to his body again. There was no time to waste. He could not risk taking one of those long showers, or going to the kitchen to find some of Taeyong’s incredible leftovers. He couldn’t risk the comforts dragging him in and trapping him forever.

He moved around in the semi-darkness, but there was nothing for him to collect. All of his worldly possessions were in the warehouse with Kun and Jungwoo and Yukhei. So he went to the door, taking care to move as quietly as he could, and opened it a crack. He peered through the gap to check that the coast was clear down the hallway, and then slipped out. The apartment was silent.

With memories of the last time he had visited Taeyong’s apartment, he felt his way to the kitchen. Everything was left spotless, but he knew that hours earlier Taeyong would have been cooking there. Food was not on his mind, though. Instead, he found the dish of car keys, and picked out the clip of money that he knew would have been left there. Hopefully it would be enough to get him out of Seoul.

Where would he go?

_Wherever the first train is going_, he thought.

Out into the hallway, and down towards the living space, and there –

He narrowed his eyes at the glow of a lamp beside the couch. His heart was beating very fast, and then it sunk.

The human was sat there, book in hand which he closed when he looked up and saw Doyoung. ‘Leaving already?’

Doyoung swallowed. Instinct fought instinct. He was a bunny hybrid, his very DNA told him to flee in times of stress. He’d done a lot of running in his life. But he’d also trained himself to stand up and fight, too. ‘What, were you waiting up to catch me?’ he said. His voice was very dry.

‘No.’ Johnny put down his book and stood up awkwardly. ‘Taeyong was. He fell asleep a couple of hours ago, so I carried him to bed. To be honest it… doesn’t matter an awful lot to me whether you stay or go, if that is what you choose, but it matters to him. So here I am.’

Doyoung narrowed his eyes. ‘A human losing sleep for their hybrid? Well that’s a first.’

‘I’d do anything for him,’ said Johnny, in a tone that betrayed complete honesty.

‘Yeah? Would you die for him?’ Doyoung knew that it was an unfair thing to snap, but fairness to humans wasn’t high on his priority list.

Johnny, though, didn’t look perturbed. ‘Of course. When my parents brought Taeyong into my life, I took responsibility for him. I take care of him, I protect him, and if I really had to then I would do so whatever the cost. He’s like my…’

‘Pet?’

‘Little brother,’ said Johnny. ‘He’s not as strong or as world-wise as I am, so it’s my job to look out for him.’

For a minute they just looked at each other. Doyoung was eyeing up the door, wondering whether to bolt and get it over with. He was not sure whether Johnny would actually go so far as to chase after him.

Johnny took a breath and nodded to the money in his hand. ‘You know that if you need money, you can just ask for it? While you’re here? I always give Taeyong whatever he needs, and while you’re in my care then of course I’ll give you what you need as well. When we walked out of that station, I took responsibility for you too.’

Doyoung felt his face twitch. ‘Then buy me a train ticket out of Seoul.’

Johnny sighed. ‘Doyoung… I don’t know why, but you mean a lot to Taeyong. And I know that he… that he probably doesn’t mean anything to you. So God knows it’s killing me having to stand here and beg you to stay, when I know that you might wind up using him, or hurting him. But Taeyong wants to be more independent, he wants to make his own choices, which means his own mistakes as well. So if he wants you here then I’m going to have to suck it up and deal with it. And after what he’s done for you today, maybe you should go just a little bit of the way towards repaying him by _sucking it up_ and giving it a chance too.’

Doyoung met his eyes again, at least glad that he was finally being honest. ‘Are you going to try to stop me leaving if I walk towards that door?’

‘I don’t know. I haven’t planned that far.’

Doyoung took one step, but Johnny didn’t try to move in front of him. He did speak, though. ‘Look, I don’t know about you. I don’t know your past or where you’re from or what people – _humans_ – have done to you. But I want you to know that we’re not all monsters. Some of us… we work really hard. And we’re good. You’ve met Ten, right? Ten lives just across the hall. Five metres down. And he was just like you – he was scared, he’d been through some horrible things and a lot of them were the fault of my kind. But now he’s so happy, he lives with a human now. He’s learned to trust again. I can’t change the world, I can’t walk out there and change the laws tomorrow to make up for every time that you and your kind have been wronged by mine. But I can at least try to help you make the best of a really shitty situation.’

‘You wouldn’t even know where to start,’ Doyoung snapped.

‘Well I know that the best isn’t hiding out in a run-down warehouse, waiting to be picked up by the cops, living off scraps and thieving your way to a living.’

‘It’s better than being owned.’

‘What the paper says doesn’t _matter_, Doyoung. I don’t think I _own _Taeyong. If he wanted to walk out of that door and take his chances by himself then it would kill me, but I’d let him. Just like if it really comes down to it, I’m going to have to let you walk out of that door too. But if you stay here, then you’re going to have a warm bed, and three meals a day, and a ragamuffin cat who for some reason I can’t understand seems to _really _adore you.’

‘It’s not worth - ’

‘And you’ll have opportunities. I can’t get you the life you want right now, but if you want us to sit down, the three of us, and work on flyers, if you want us to campaign, then I’ll do it. I’ll help you find ways to get into work, and I’ll help you find somewhere to live.’

Doyoung shook his head. ‘There’s no way in hell you’d do that for me.’

‘I’ll do it for Taeyong.’

Doyoung swallowed, a thousand thoughts flying through his head at once.

‘There aren’t opportunities for you out there,’ Johnny jerked his head at the door. ‘Not right now. You don’t stand a chance. You’ve tried enough times already. But within the system, you’ve got a shot. You could make a difference, and you could do all of it without having to spend the winter in a shack of warehouse, on the run. Stealing for food.’

‘I’m just… confused.’ Doyoung kneaded his eyes. He wanted to sleep again. He wanted to lie down and forget everything. ‘I don’t – you’re confusing me.’

‘Stay a week, a month. Give it a chance. Let me show you that humans aren’t all bad. And for the love of God, show Taeyong that he’s made the right choice by trying to save you.’

At last, Doyoung gave in. ‘_Fine_.’

‘You’ll stay?’

He span around, and saw Taeyong framed in the doorway. His tail was loose, swishing softly across the floor. His ears perked up with excitement even though his eyes looked locked in sleep.

Doyoung didn’t know what to say.

‘Why don’t you go and make Doyoung your super-secret-midnight-feast tea cookies, Taeyong?’ suggested Johnny. The way he looked at Taeyong was like nothing Doyoung had ever seen before between a human and a hybrid. It was warm and soft and there was such love there, but nothing like passion, and nothing like ownership. It was just… _like Taeyong’s his little brother_, Doyoung thought. ‘And I’m sure Doyoung would really like to try the steam shower, right?’

Doyoung took a shake breath, then nodded. ‘Yeah, yeah okay.’

The shower in the large bathroom was complex, with a number of buttons and knobs and dials that could be twisted, but Doyoung was not going to ask for help, so he ended up stripping off his clothes and standing in the square cubicle with his eyes scanning the system for hints. His rudimentary reading skills were enough to tell him which dials were for _hot _and _cold_. And he didn’t mind experimenting – he’d taken enough cold showers in his time.

When the water turned hot, he let out a low moan, almost erotic, but it was merely relief. He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt anything so blissful. The stream channelled down his back, hotter than it needed to be but the burn was good. He turned up the heat until his skin risked blistering, and then he turned it up some more. A low grunt escaped his throat as the water turned furious, and then he squeezed his eyes shut, slamming his fist against the smooth tiles.

*

It was too easy.

Living here.

The hours rolled into days, and the days rolled into a week or two weeks like it was nothing.

Doyoung was trapped, hooked like a fish in the sea. _Tomorrow_, _I’ll leave tomorrow_, he thought over and over. But tomorrow always became the next day, and the next, and the next because his subconscious put it off without a second thought. Staying in Taeyong’s apartment was like living in one of those holidays that he’d seen advertised in the windows of agencies he’d once passed in the street. There was always food, there was always hot water, there was never work to be done.

Taeyong spent most of the day while Johnny was at work alternating between two activities: lazing around and napping like any good cat hybrid would, and cooking. Neither of those things were in Doyoung’s inclination, so he had to find other ways to fill his time.

He was reading.

To his horror, Johnny had been shopping one day and brought home books for him. Not long, dense books, but books that were written for kids. After cursing at him and storming down the hallway to seek sanctuary in Ten’s apartment, where he went sometimes so long as Jaehyun wasn’t home, he’d eventually been coaxed back by Taeyong’s promises that it would help. Saying no to Taeyong was surprisingly difficult.

And though he would never admit it to the human, the books _did _help.

The text was big and there were pictures attached and the structure was designed for learning.

‘I like this one,’ said Taeyong. He was sprawled back on the sofa, reading one of Doyoung’s books. His tail curled up, then flopped down over and over, so plush and soft that Doyoung could understand why he spent hours grooming it. ‘You should read to me, Doyoungie!’

‘Don’t call me that,’ said Doyoung. He was sat at the table, copying out syllable blocks like his life depended on it. ‘I swear to God - ’

When he looked over, he saw that Taeyong was smiling. _Right_. He was messing with him. As he watched, Taeyong stood up and stretched out. There was nothing quite like watching a kitty hybrid stretch. He extended so far as he reached up to the ceiling that he looked much taller than he was. His shirt rode up to expose his slender waist and he rolled his head back so that his neck cricked and the line of his throat curved in an arc.

‘Show me what you’re working on,’ ordered Taeyong, skipping up behind his chair and leaning over him.

The air was filled with Taeyong’s scent, and Doyoung looked down. It had been stronger the one time he’d seen Taeyong in heat, but it was still thick in the air when they were this close together. It was sweet, like something he’d wake up to smell Taeyong cooking in the morning as a special treat. His heart sped up, tension increased by the closeness.

‘Don’t ignore me,’ Taeyong whined, close to his ear, so close that his breath stroked over his skin, and that just about did it.

Doyoung turned around and stood up, his hands closing around Taeyong’s shoulders and pushing him backwards. ‘I’ve never met someone so _demanding _as you,’ he said through gritted teeth, and his grip was tight but Taeyong’s expression didn’t indicate any kind of discomfort.

Before he’d even realised their pace, Doyoung had pushed Taeyong all the way across the room and up against the kitchen counter. His breath came out fast, and he was confused as to why but all he knew was that he felt heady with Taeyong’s scent and the cabin fever of being stuck between these walls.

Taeyong bit his lip and met his eyes. Those wide, _naïve _eyes.

‘You drive me crazy.’

Taeyong huffed and pushed his hands away. ‘And you act like _you’re_ easy to live with! If you ask me, then - ’

Doyoung grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him close enough to kiss him.

He had to.

If only to shut him up.

The memory of Taeyong trying to kiss him during his heat rushed back into Doyoung’s mind and the thought of him hot with heat and desperate for touch made his whole body turn hot. He bit hard at Taeyong’s lower lip, pushing for entry, and Taeyong did not protest, just parted his lips with a soft moan and let Doyoung take ownership of his mouth. He curved up against him, back arching and fingers closing around whatever he could grab of Doyoung’s shirt.

‘Finally,’ Taeyong exhaled when Doyoung released his lips and latched onto his throat, determined to leave a mark there.

‘Shut _up _Taeyong!’ he said, right against his skin. ‘Just shut up.’

‘What? You’ve wanted me since you first met me. Admit it. I mean I understand, I’m - ’

With a sound of frustration, Doyoung lifted a hand and pushed two fingers past Taeyong’s lips to shut him up. Taeyong didn’t seem to mind. He sucked down around them and Doyoung groaned, furious at Taeyong for being so annoying and furious at himself for being so weak. He knew, inside, that this wasn’t something he’d just be able to forget about after; this would change things.

‘And you want me?’ he demanded, looking back up to meet Taeyong’s eyes.

‘Mmhm,’ Taeyong hummed.

Doyoung cursed and pulled his fingers free. ‘You’ll be the death of me. Silly cat.’

The spell was broken, just in time, because Doyoung’s arousal was threatening to cloud his mind as much as the sweet, honey-like scent that hovered around Taeyong. And this couldn’t be allowed to happen.

‘I really like you, Doyoung.’ Taeyong straightened up and adjusted the front of his clothes, as Doyoung turned away, breathing heavily.

‘Then that complicates things, because I can’t _stand _you,’ he muttered.

‘But you want me though, right? That’s the same thing?’

Doyoung shook his head. ‘No, no Taeyong, it’s not the same thing.’

Taeyong reached forward and caught him by the wrist. He pulled him back and tugged at the hem of his shirt, but Doyoung pulled free and took two steps back.

‘I can’t.’

‘Please. You’re the one who kissed _me_. Let’s - ’

‘Your first time should be with someone who loves you,’ said Doyoung flatly, mechanically. He kneaded his forehead. Much as the idea of fucking the _annoying _out of Taeyong was appealing, the cat didn’t deserve that. Doyoung was screwed-up, but whatever he thought about Taeyong, he couldn’t let his own cynicism and his own bitterness ruin _him _forever too. ‘And I hardly even like you.’

Guilt racked him from his shoulders down to his toes as he saw Taeyong blink away glassy eyes and try to hide a sniff. ‘Right.’

Doyoung squared his shoulders. It was better to hurt Taeyong’s feelings now than let him get hurt so much worse further down the line. He turned to walk away back to his room, but then he heard Taeyong say in a small voice:

‘_Hardly _even? So you like me a _little _bit?’

Doyoung wanted to snap no, but he wasn’t completely dead inside. ‘I’ve begun to find you… tolerable.’

‘Okay.’ There was a shy smile in Taeyong’s voice and that made Doyoung roll his eyes almost all the way back into his head.

*

‘Why do you hate them so much?’ asked Taeyong.

He was curled up with Ten on the couch, eating crab chips out of the packet. Doyoung was sat on the floor, unwilling to get that close to them but equally unwilling to sit in Johnny’s chair. There was a book open in his lap, but it was mainly there so that he could pretend to be distracted so as not to have to speak to the two cats on the couch.

‘Crab chips?’ he asked without looking up, voice light.

‘Humans.’

Ten’s eyes flickered from Taeyong to Doyoung, watching the interaction keenly. He interrogated Taeyong constantly about his relationship with Doyoung, and this must have piqued his interest.

‘Why, Doyoung?’ whispered Taeyong, like the answer to this question was terribly important to him.

‘A house-cat like you could never understand what their kind have put hybrids like me through,’ said Doyoung. ‘And I wouldn’t expect you to.’ 

Taeyong chewed his lip.

After a moment of silence, Ten gave Taeyong a squeeze before sitting up straighter and pushing his hair back from his forehead. He edged to the front of the couch seat and knotted his fingers together on his lap. Then, he spoke. ‘When I was first abandoned, my owners left me chained up to a lamppost in the rain. They didn’t even think to let me go free, try to fend for myself. They left me there to become another human’s responsibility. By the time they found me I was shaking, out of it with cold, and my skin was bruised all over my neck from where I’d tried to slip the chain.’

‘Tennie - ’ Taeyong reached out for his hand but Ten kept his firmly in his lap.

‘I was picked up by some good people, and they took me to the nearest shelter,’ Ten continued. ‘I spent months there, months and months. But no one wanted a black cat. They say we’re bad luck. Eventually, I ran away. I couldn’t live there anymore. I was picked up again, though, and this time they sent me to a halfway-shelter. It was horrible. I regretted running away from that first shelter every single day. The humans who worked there were very cruel, and they hated our kind. They were violent to a lot of us. I saw things that I can never _un_-see. I still see it all when I sleep.’

Doyoung closed his book, and then his eyes, taking slow, steadying breaths.

‘Whatever you’ve been through, we’ll understand,’ said Ten. ‘Me _and _Taeyong, even if he is a spoiled princess.’

‘Hey!’ Taeyong gave him a shove.

‘I hated them so much, Doyoung. I _hated _them. But then I met Jaehyun. He took me out of that place, gave me this incredible life. I fell in love with him. He fell in love with me. And I realised that there are good humans out there. Like Jae, like _Johnny_.’

‘I’d never be with a human,’ said Doyoung.

Ten rolled his eyes and jerked his head at Taeyong. ‘Well you don’t have to be. You have a kitty right here who’s head over heels for you.’

At that, Taeyong launched himself at Ten, knocking him off the couch and to the ground. They fought, rough but the sort of rough of how kittens play with their brothers, no claws out. ‘Ten! I! Hate! You!’

Only when Ten pinned Taeyong down, and the ragamuffin gave up and started to whine incessantly to be released, did Doyoung take a deep breath and interrupt. ‘I wasn’t born in a test-tube. I had parents. They raised me out on the street. The humans snatched me away from them.’

Ten slowly let go of Taeyong, and they both sat up breathless.

‘I’ve been in the system my whole life. I can’t say what’s been done to me because it would give that one nightmares.’ Doyoung nodded to Taeyong. ‘I can never live in harmony with one of them. I can never forgive them. Maybe you could, but I won’t. I don’t care how kind Johnny is. Or Jaehyun. Every time I look at them I’m just reminded of the people who hurt me. The memories haunt my waking days, and nightmares haunt my sleep.’

‘If the nightmares are really bad you can come and sleep in my bed with me,’ said Taeyong softly.

Doyoung laughed and shook his head, but he managed to smile. ‘Not really the point I was making.’

‘You’ve managed a couple of weeks, though,’ Taeyong pressed. ‘You’ve been doing really well here. Your case worker Mr Choi is happy. And you’re happy too, right? You like the bed and the shower and the food I cook for you? We could make it work, Doyoungie. I promise. You said yourself that I’m… tolerable! Fate brought us together and I just _know _this is where you’re supposed to be. With me.’

‘With you… and Johnny?’ Doyoung said, a derisive hint sneaking into his voice.

‘With me.’

‘So what? We shack up in your bedroom and Johnny lives down the hall?’

‘No,’ said Ten cheerfully, before Taeyong could answer, ‘_I _live down the hall. Johnny would be right next door.’

Doyoung laughed again, but he felt strangely… relaxed. Calm. Maybe it was the fact that this option, placed in front of him by this persistent lap cat, was _easy_, just like staying in this apartment had been so far. Leaving would harder. A part of him, buried deep inside, was begging him to just say _yes_. ‘I can’t spend my life living lazing hours, Taeyong.’

‘Me neither! That’s why I met you in the first place! I was looking for something more and we can _find _something. I have a secret.’

‘What secret?’ said Doyoung and Ten in unison, the latter turning to him with an accusatory look.

‘Johnny thinks he’s found a way that I can do some work. A loophole. I won’t be a lazy housecat anymore.’

‘What _work_?’ said Ten in astonishment.

‘The one thing I’m good at,’ Taeyong beamed, voice as bright as it had ever been, ‘cooking of course!’


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! It’s a gorgeous day here, the sun is out and kick it got its first win ^-^ I hope you’re all as happy as I am today. Xx
> 
> (C/W for this chapter – brief description of violence)

‘I’m going to go and see my friends,’ announced Doyoung, and Taeyong looked up from his saucepan in surprise. He was working on a new recipe, one that would keep well in plastic packaging, because Johnny had already ordered the prototypes for the boxes and he needed to make sure that the meals were practical.

Johnny had told him that if Taeyong made enough interesting dishes and packaged them up, then Johnny would be able to sell them to the people at his offices during his lunch breaks. He’d already been canvassing and found that many people would be interested in buying them, both for their work lunches and to take home for dinner in the cases of those who did not have a partner or a hybrid waiting for them at home. Johnny said that if it went well, then they would be able to start looking at ways to expand and sell in other places.

Taeyong’s first job.

‘Okay,’ said Taeyong without hesitation, because any time that Doyoung was talking to him without having to be harangued into it was a plus. ‘When?’

‘Now,’ shrugged Doyoung.

He looked different to when Taeyong and Johnny had first brought him home. He was cleaner, and his cheeks were more puffed out now that he was better fed. His clothes were new and fitted him better than his old ones and when Johnny wasn’t in the apartment, he didn’t wear his beanie anymore. Taeyong found himself longing to stroke the velvety ears whenever Doyoung passed, but he kept his hands firmly to himself.

‘Well I gotta just finish this up,’ said Taeyong quickly, voice anxious.

‘I can go by myself,’ Doyoung rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t need a chaperone.’

‘Yes you _do_!’ he answered angrily. ‘We don’t want you getting picked up again. If you’re with me then everyone will know there’s nothing untoward going on. Anyone can see that I’m a very upstanding citizen. Maybe we should take Ten too…’

‘Right, of course, because you two are like a package deal.’

Taeyong accelerated through the last of his lunch at lightening pace before lifting it off the heat. ‘I won’t be two minutes,’ he said, anxious because Doyoung was already pulling on his jacket and looking around for shoes. ‘And _don’t _forget your collar!’

Doyoung gave him a withering look, but he didn’t argue.

Taeyong didn’t even have time to brush his tail. He ran around his bedroom grabbing up outdoor clothes and a pair of shiny purple boots that he hadn’t worn yet but that Johnny had ordered for him after finding him pining. He hopped back out into the hallway, pulling on socks as he went, and found Doyoung waiting for him by the door, clicking his tongue irritably.

‘You waited for me?’

Doyoung shrugged. ‘I knew you’d chase me down the street otherwise.’

They waited outside Ten’s apartment door after Taeyong knocked five times, but there was no answer. Finally, when they were about to give up altogether, the door opened a crack and Ten’s face appeared. ‘Sorry, closed today,’ Ten said quickly, and went to close the door again but Taeyong pouted.

‘We’re going out! Don’t you want to come with us?’

He could barely see Ten at all, just the line of his eye through the tiny gap. ‘Jaehyun just got home from a twelve-hour shift. I’m helping him destress.’

‘Oh, sure!’ smiled Taeyong. He knew how exhausted Jaehyun could be after his long shifts at the hospital. ‘Well there’s sundubu-jjigae in my kitchen if that will help! I can get it for you and - ’

‘Not that kind of destressing, Taeyong,’ said Doyoung in a warning voice and he pulled Taeyong away by the sleeve. ‘I think they’d rather be left alone.’

‘_Oh_…’ he trailed off as Doyoung tugged him down the corridor.

He preferred it when Ten came out with them because he acted as a kind of _buffer_. Doyoung liked Ten, probably more than he liked Taeyong, and Ten could always stop any situation from becoming awkward. Without him, Taeyong had to fill all of the silences and he knew that it annoyed Doyoung when he talked too much.

‘Dangit!’ he clapped his hand against his forehead in the elevator. ‘I should have brought some of the stew for your friends!’

‘It’s fine, they won’t mind,’ said Doyoung. Taeyong could tell that he was on edge, because it had been too long since he’d been to visit them.

The trip across town was familiar to Taeyong, but it was strange to be heading to the warehouse _with _Doyoung. He remembered how nervous he’d been finding it for the first time, afraid of attack from the dog hybrid who guarded it. Never mind that Yukhei was actually the biggest softie in the entire world. Taeyong hadn’t know at the _time_. Today, though, the exterior was deserted.

Doyoung narrowed his eyes and found his way to the metal shutter. It was closed all of the way, but he lifted it easily and ducked beneath. Taeyong followed, looking around curiously because the place seemed to be deserted. There were the remnants of a dinner, and evidence that people had lived here in the form of messy beds comprised of old pillows and blankets, but no signs of life.

The air was dusty, and very little light made it in through the small windows far above.

‘Jungwoo? Yukhei?’ Doyoung called out, and Taeyong could feel his tension. ‘_Kun_?’

‘Oh Doyoung - ’ a hybrid appeared, slipping out from behind a pillar where he must have been hiding. ‘It’s you. I thought - ’

‘I know you!’ interrupted Taeyong because he could stop himself. When he stepped into one of the narrow sheaths of light, Taeyong recognised him in a second. He was a deer hybrid, with large attentive ears and small twisted antlers. ‘You used to wave to me in the mornings!’

Doyoung looked between the two of them in surprise. ‘Taeyong, this is Kun.’

Kun looked down with a small smile. ‘So you’re Taeyong? I heard a lot about you. When Doyoung was complaining. I never would have imagined that all of his grumbles were about the sweet little ragamuffin that I saw on my grocery trips.’

‘I never knew that you were a stray,’ said Taeyong. ‘You don’t look - ’

‘I know how to make myself blend in,’ answered Kun. ‘When you have features like this,’ he gestured to his antlers and upright ears, ‘you can’t hide under a beanie like Doyoung. You learn to hide in plain sight.’

Clearly not interested in this conversation, Doyoung stepped closer to Kun. ‘Where are Jungwoo and Yukhei?’

Kun sighed and took Doyoung’s arm gently. ‘They left, Doyoung. Shortly after you got picked up. They didn’t feel safe anymore.’

‘Left?’ There was a hollowness in Doyoung’s voice that hurt Taeyong’s soul. Doyoung always claimed that he and the other hybrids weren’t that close, but Taeyong knew that they were his only friends.

Kun nodded. ‘They wanted me to go with them, they think they’ll be safer out of the city somewhere, but I’m just too tired to run anymore. So I stayed.’

‘You’ve been here all by yourself?’ whispered Doyoung.

‘You know me,’ Kun gave him a small smile, ‘I don’t think I’d fit in with the alley cats and the Wolf Pack would send me running. So I figured I would just stay here. I get by.’

Taeyong stared between the two of them with his mouth slightly open. ‘You can’t stay here by _yourself_, it’s not safe!’ Even if Yukhei was a baby at heart, he’d at least been tall enough to scare away intrduers. A deer hybrid couldn’t survive alone out on the streets like this. He turned to Doyoung. ‘We’ll find Jungwoo and Yukhei. Track them down. And then we’ll all - ’

‘No,’ said Doyoung, and when Taeyong looked to Kun for support he was frustrated to see that he was nodding his agreement. ‘Strays leave, Taeyong. It’s the way of things. If they wanted to go, then they wanted to go.’ 

‘But that’s not _fair_!’

Kun sighed and met Doyoung’s eyes. ‘You were right. He is naïve.’

‘I wish everyone would stop _calling _me that!’ snapped Taeyong, and he puffed out his chest. He was barely any smaller than them. ‘Kun, you’re coming home with us.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Don’t try to argue,’ said Doyoung quickly, ‘trust me, I’ve tried. He always wins.’

‘I’m not leaving this place until you come with us. You can’t live here by yourself. And don’t _you _start!’ he said pre-emptively, knowing that Doyoung would use this as an excuse to say that maybe _he _could stay with Kun. ‘No ifs, no buts. _I’m _taking charge now and you’ll both do as I say!’ 

Kun smiled and raised his eyebrows at Doyoung. ‘He’s very cute.’

‘The cute wears off quickly when you have to spend all day every day with him,’ muttered Doyoung, but it didn’t sound like his heart was really in it.

*

The plan worked out so nicely in Taeyong’s head, but he had not considered one small snag, a snag that caught him in the hallway in the form of a positively _bristling _Johnny.

‘_Don’t _freak out,’ said Taeyong, a minute too late.

‘Don’t freak out?’ hissed Johnny. ‘Taeyong, we can’t take in every stray in Seoul! What on earth were you thinking?’

‘Well I couldn’t leave him there by himself!’ Taeyong whispered. They were in the corridor outside the apartment, where Taeyong had managed to waylay Johnny before he got home from work, because he had _not _wanted him walking in and finding Doyoung and Kun playing cards in the living room. ‘What was I supposed to do?’

Johnny exhaled slowly, like he was trying very hard to stay calm. ‘Taeyong, there are hundreds, _thousands _of strays in this city. We can do what we can, but we can’t save all of them.’

‘Why not?’ protested Taeyong. ‘We’ve got lots of money.’

‘We haven’t got the _space_, Taeyong!’

‘Well we’re moving soon anyway!’ he continued to argue. ‘And I can always sleep in with you like we used to when we were kids. Kun can have my bed. We’ll figure it out.’

‘No,’ said Johnny. ‘I’m sorry Taeyong, but _no_. I’ll find a shelter where he can stay tonight, but we can’t take in another one. I’m sorry.’

Taeyong bit his gum in frustration, wanting to snap at Johnny but he knew he’d just end up in more trouble and he didn’t want to feel even more guilty than he already did. Especially since he’d already told Kun that he could stay. Johnny pushed open the door, still shaking his head, and Taeyong followed meekly behind, curling his hands and his wrists together in worry.

Kun and Doyoung were sat at the table, laughing together over a card game and sipping on the tea that Taeyong had made. Kun was very beautiful when he smiled, Taeyong had noticed, and he was usually smiling so that was most of the time. Johnny took off his shoes and coat with a sigh, like he knew he was going to have to play the bad guy, and then he looked over to them.

Kun stood up abruptly and bowed low in respect. When he straightened back up, Taeyong saw Johnny hesitate, open his mouth and then close it again. He looked, remarkably, lost for words.

The three hybrids in the room were all looking at him.

Johnny licked his lips nervously, eyes fixed on Kun. Then he looked down in a bashful sort of way that Taeyong wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before. It made him narrow his eyes. ‘I’m Johnny, Johnny Seo,’ he said too formally. ‘Taeyong’s… Taeyong’s person.’

‘My name is Kun. Thank you so much for letting me come to the apartment. I don’t want to be a nuisance.’

There was a moment of quiet in which Taeyong felt his heart race and guilt threaten to overcome him, and then -

‘Right… um… well it’s fine. You can… I’ll sleep on the couch and you can have my bed.’

Doyoung and Taeyong both stared at Johnny in complete astonishment. Taeyong wondered if his Johnny had somehow been replaced by some sort of shapeshifter between the hallway and the apartment.

‘Oh no, I could never!’ said Kun quickly. ‘I’ve spent plenty of time sleeping on the floor, I don’t mind.’

‘No!’ ordered Johnny. ‘I’ll take the couch.’

‘Well then you must at least let me make dinner tonight,’ said Kun, and he looked as shy as Johnny.

Taeyong looked at Doyoung with raised eyebrows, and Doyoung just shrugged.

Kun _did _make dinner, with some help from Taeyong because the cat realised that he could be quite happy as a sous chef. They worked together on a magnificent spread, because Kun said that he wanted to thank Johnny and Taeyong wasn’t going to argue with a stunning meal. That left Doyoung and Johnny alone together in the living room, but there was no shouting so Taeyong hoped it was going okay.

‘You’re really good at this,’ said Taeyong as they cooked.

‘So are you,’ smiled Kun.

Thoughts started to formulate in Taeyong’s mind, a little daydream that grew and grew while they were cooking, until -

‘Because Kun is so good at cooking, maybe he could help me with my new business. We could call it Yongkun’s. Or something!’ said Taeyong brightly. It was a few hours later, and he and Doyoung were bundled up in his bedroom, sat next to the bookcase.

They were supposed to be being quiet, because Kun had gone to bed early and Johnny was working in the living room, but he could never keep his voice very hushed. ‘If Johnny lets him stay, I mean.’

Doyoung sighed. He was only here in Taeyong’s bedroom because the cat had promised to show him some of his books, but somehow they’d fallen into a conversation. ‘I think the human will let him stay.’

‘The human has a name, you know.’

‘Johnny. I think Johnny will let him stay.’

‘Why?’

Doyoung rolled his eyes and didn’t answer. ‘Kun’s always liked humans. He’s like you. Thinks they’re good people.’

‘Do you still think they aren’t?’ said Taeyong softly. ‘Aren’t you happy here? Haven’t things been better for you?’

‘Well that’s thanks to you, not him,’ said Doyoung, picking at Taeyong’s comforter, but for once he didn’t argue that his life was looking up. It was true. The more time that he spent in this apartment, the more than he started to think he could stomach a life like this. It was nice, not to be running all the time. ‘If they weren’t stepping on us all the time, then lots of hybrids could have lives like this. Living together, working together. Imagine it.’

‘I _am _imagining it,’ said Taeyong. ‘When we move to a bigger apartment in the building Johnny designed, we won’t be so on top of each other all the time. I’m going to have my lunch business and you can start to work too.’

‘Work doing what?’

‘I don’t know. Writing pamphlets or something, once your writing gets better! Johnny will take all of your petitions to be published officially. He told me. He really wants to make things happen for you, Doyoung. He… he cares about you.’

Doyoung remembered how Johnny had said to him that he didn’t care about him so much as care about _Taeyong_, but that with Taeyong so invested in Doyoung’s future the two amounted to the same thing. He didn’t mention that confrontation to Taeyong. ‘Sure he does,’ he said in a tone that was no decidedly sarcastic but that could not be entirely trusted. 

‘And I do too.’

‘I know you do.’

‘Before I met you, Doyoung, my life was… I didn’t want to live it anymore. It was so boring, meaningless, every day was the same. I thought I’d never have my own life outside the front door. I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to feel… to fall in love. And then - ’

‘Don’t say it, Taeyong,’ he sighed.

‘I fell for you. And I know you maybe don’t feel it back and that’s okay. But it’s enough for me just to feel like one day you might.’

Doyoung let go of the comforter. ‘I like you, Taeyong,’ he said. ‘I do. I don’t know why, but I do. But I’m… messy. The things I’ve been through, the things I’ll go through forever in my head… I don’t want that life for you. You deserve someone who loves you better than I could.’

‘But love isn’t about _deserving_,’ said Taeyong. ‘You don’t choose who you fall in love with. It just happens.’

Doyoung rested his hand on Taeyong’s knee and squeezed gently. ‘Listen. A human nearly killed me once. At a halfway shelter. He was so furious at something that another hybrid had done that he took it out on me, because I was nearest and we’re all the same to them. One homogenous mass. He strangled me until I passed out. I only survived because they get into trouble if we die. And every time I put on a collar, that’s how it feels, like human hands are a _vice _around my throat all over again. Like they always _will _be.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’ whispered Taeyong, and his eyes were glassy.

‘Because I don’t know how to do _both_,’ he said through gritted teeth, but he was angry at himself, not Taeyong. ‘I don’t know how to love you and hate them, not when your human comes with the package. It’s too hard.’

‘You say that they look at us like one mass, like we’re all the same, but you’re saying the same thing about them. They’re all different. There are good ones and bad ones, and _terrible _ones. But Johnny is one of the good ones. And if… if you can’t do both then we’ll leave. I’ll come with you and we’ll go somewhere else, just the two of us.’

Doyoung shook his head. ‘I’d never ask you to leave him.’

‘But I’m in love with you.’

The words out loud made Doyoung’s head ache and his stomach turn anti-clockwise. He kneaded his forehead with his free hand. ‘Come here,’ he muttered, and he pulled Taeyong into a short hug. He rested his cheek against his, inhaled his sweet scent, and stroked his fingers over the soft hair at the base of his ears. ‘You’re a good cat,’ he said. ‘I mean it. I know I can be an asshole, but don’t you ever forget that you’re good, no matter what _I _say.’

*

‘Taeyong? Taeyong wake up.’ The whisper was close to his ear and Taeyong jolted awake in a panic, unused to being disturbed in the night.

Through the darkness, he could make out Kun’s unmissable form. ‘What is it, Kun?’ he sat up, wondering whether Kun had had a nightmare like Doyoung sometimes did.

‘He’s gone,’ said Kun. ‘Doyoung left.’

‘What? Left where?’ Taeyong was confused, sleep still weighing on his brain. He blinked away the dust in his eyes and then rubbed them to try to make out Kun clearer.

‘_Left, _Taeyong.’ Kun sat down on the side of the bed. He was wringing his hands the same way that Taeyong did when he was anxious, head dropped low in shame. ‘He woke me to tell me that he was going, that he couldn’t stay here anymore. He said it was too hard. He told me I should stay here because it’s the sort of place that I’m meant to be but not him. Then he made me swear not to tell you. And he’s my friend and I’ve always thought people can make their own choices so I didn’t wake you, but then I’ve been lying awake and I just keep thinking how healthy he is here, how happy he could be if he would just let himself be, and I just couldn’t lie there anymore and - ’

‘When did he go?’ Taeyong was already climbing out of bed, his cartoon-fruit patterned pyjamas not suitable for the severity of the situation.

‘Maybe an hour ago?’ said Kun, sounding guilty.

Taeyong fumbled around for jeans in a panic. ‘I have to wake up Johnny. Doyoung must have snuck right past him. We have to find him! Where do you think he would have gone?’

‘I don’t _know _Taeyong!’

‘Well where did Jungwoo and Yukhei go? Maybe he’s going to try to follow them?’

‘They took a train south to Gwangju and then they were going to head out of the city. But I don’t think Doyoung knows that, not unless they talked about it a long time ago. He could be anywhere. He won’t have gone to the warehouse because he’d know you’d find him there.’

‘Johnny!’ Taeyong yelled, unable to wait in his panic. ‘Johnny wake up!’ He pulled on a jumper straight over his pyjama shirt. ‘Kun you need to go and wake up Ten! Oh _no _you don’t know where Ten lives. I’ll go and wake up Ten.’

‘What’s happening?’ Johnny was at the doorway already, brandishing the heavy iron base of a lamp. At over six foot and armed, he looked quite ferocious.

Kun ducked out of the way in instinct as though scared he was about to get hit, but Taeyong wasn’t intimidated by Johnny’s frame, weapon or not, and simply pushed past him to get out into the hallway. ‘Doyoung’s gone, Johnny! We have to find him! I’m going to wake up Ten! Oh I hope Jaehyun is home, Ten can’t _drive_, and it’ll be quicker if we go in cars.’

‘Taeyong, stop, calm down, tell me what’s going on,’ said Johnny, grabbing him around the waist and hauling him back until Taeyong stood still for five seconds.

‘Doyoung ran away! What part aren’t you _getting _Johnny?’

Johnny stared at him. ‘Ran away?’

‘_Yes_, Johnny!’ He was frustrated at having to be the one that was sensible, but he’d seen Johnny take control of enough situations before that he could handle it by a matter of mimicry. ‘Someone should stay here in case he comes back. Kun should stay here. Jaehyun can check with the emergency room to make sure that he hasn’t been taken in, and you can check with the police station to make sure that no one’s picked him up. Then Ten and Jaehyun can start driving around town looking. And you and I… you and I should check the train station, and the bus station.’

Johnny’s mouth was open as he stared at him. ‘Who are you and what have you done with my Taeyongie? When did you get so… _grown-up_?’

Taeyong stood as tall as he could muster. ‘Put some clothes on. There’s no time to lose! I waited too long to fall in love only to let it slip through my fingers now!’

‘In love?’ Johnny said blankly. ‘You’re in love with him?’

‘Yes. And he loves me too. He just won’t admit it yet.’

‘Right,’ Johnny nodded. ‘I’m going to check that Kun is okay staying here by himself. You go and wake up Ten.’

Taeyong didn’t need telling twice. He was already at the door, pulling on odd shoes. It was true, what he’d said to Johnny. He’d waited too long for this, worked too hard. He’d watched Doyoung start to unfold and stretch out and open up and he wasn’t going to let it all be for nothing. It couldn’t all end like this.


End file.
